Review: Gone Girl

by Trevor Kirkendall

★★★½

“Gone Girl” arrives with much fanfare and anticipation. The book upon which this film is based is an international bestseller. I have no doubt that someone somewhere has said something to you along the lines of “seriously, you HAVE to read this book.” Whether you have read the book or not, this is one of those rare films that stays faithful to its source material while still feeling original and fresh.

The film follows Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) who is about to celebrate his fifth anniversary with his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike). Their marriage is falling apart, something Nick confides in with his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon). But Nick’s problems today are just getting started. He soon discovers his wife missing. Their living room looks like some kind of struggle took place, and trace elements of blood remain visible. Detective Boney (Kim Dickens) and her partner Gilpin (Patrick Fugit) are on the case, but all the evidence points to Nick. He maintains his innocence, but it gets increasingly difficult with so much evidence pointing to him as the murderer and the national media crucifying him each night on TV.

While “Gone Girl” tells the tale of a dysfunctional marriage, there is one marriage here that is perfect. That’s the marriage of director and source material. Very rarely these days do we see a story come along and find its way to a filmmaker with such a unique and distinctive style that matches perfectly. David Fincher has made a career out of telling stories about outcasts or about people living their lives behind a façade.

Fincher is so polished in his craft, making him one of the absolute best filmmakers working today. “Gone Girl” is yet another example on how far he has come as a filmmaker. His chaotic, breakneck pace of storytelling in films such as “Seven” and “Fight Club” have given way to much more provocative films with infinitely more depth. That’s not to say “Seven” and “Fight Club” are bad films – they’re not; far from it, in fact. But he’s become much more versed in character and story that he doesn’t need the fancy visual tricks to carry his films. He was already proficient with the camera and with the dark suspenseful elements of filmmaking, but ever since “Zodiac” he’s taken his films to an entirely different level.

As a man always drawn to the dark and the mysterious, Fincher and “Gone Girl” is a perfect match. If you’re someone who hasn’t read the book, then you probably know someone who has. And that person has no doubt pressed you time and time again to read it. It’s the kind of story that shrouded in so much mystery that it keeps its readers guessing and addicted. The film is just as cryptic thanks to the fact that the novel’s author – Gillian Flynn – is also the screenwriter. Flynn already knows the story and the characters forward and backward which makes her the perfect candidate to adapt the novel. There are differences between the novel and film, but nothing too earth shattering. A few minor elements are left out or glossed over just for the sake of pacing, but this is an otherwise very faithful adaptation.

The dark and twisted elements of the book are brought to life so well thanks to Fincher’s grasp on the source material. I knew going into this film that there were some shocking and crazy parts to it, but Fincher turns it up a notch to make it one of the most compelling examinations of modern marriage this year. The book raises a lot of questions about how well we know our spouses, but the film visualizes it so flawlessly that it could leave any husband keeping a watchful and frightful eye on his wife moving forward.

And Fincher's familiar tone is on full display here. He always tends to work with the same people to give his films a similar yet distinctive feeling. Dark and dimly lit cinematography comes courtesy of his longtime director of photography Jeff Cronenweth. The multi-faced story occurring in different times and places is spliced together with such precision from long time film editor Kirk Baxter. And the bone chilling score from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who wrote one of the most inventive and original film scores in years for Fincher's "The Social Network," adds the perfect element of mystery to a film where over half the audience knows what's coming next. All these familiar elements help Fincher focus on the story and the acting rather than micromanage all other elements of his production.

But “Gone Girl” couldn’t have been made possible without the work of Fincher’s perfect casting. Affleck is great as Nick Dunne. Many people have a hard time taking him seriously as an actor after that terrible movie he made with his then-spouse over a decade ago. He’s not a bad actor, and he proves it here. This is one of the better roles he’s done. The supporting cast around him also fits into their roles perfectly including Carrie Coon as his twin sister and Kim Dickens as Detective Boney. Lighter supporting work from Tyler Perry as Affleck’s lawyer Tanner Bolt and Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings – a rich ex-boyfriend of Amy’s – are also solid despite limited screen time. The real star here, however, is Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne. The adjectives I would use to describe her character could very well spoil some of the surprising elements of this film for those who aren’t familiar with the story. Let’s just say she plays the part subdued and low key – slightly different than I imagined it in the book – and plays it very well.

Anyone worried that “Gone Girl” will be another Hollywood butcher job of one of his or her favorite books can rest easy. At a time when Hollywood takes too many liberties with popular novels, this one turns out to be one of the most faithful adaptations of a book in recent years. There isn’t a better director out there to handle subject matter such as this than the masterful David Fincher. He’s taken a story that’s not just dark and turned it around to be a social examination on both marriage and the media’s guilty-until-proven-innocent stance. There’s so much to enjoy about this film. No matter if you’ve read the book or not, it’s a wild and crazy ride from beginning to end.