Gone Girl (2014)

268) Gone Girl (2014)

With his wife’s disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it’s suspected that he may not be innocent.

8/10 – This film was a joke, right? I mean, there were so many implausible pieces to it, that I would like to think that by the end of it, any aspect along with our patience and understanding of your typical thriller has been thrown out of the window. Then as a result, Fincher has had a big cackle to himself, gives us a slap in the face for wanting anything serious or even remotely on the scale of Zodiac or Se7en, and proceeds to satirise everything in sight.

If that’s the case, then bravo. The opening third was fantastic cinema, created enough tension and Affleck was the loveable doofus posing in front of his missing wives photo like a star. Every time I see that pose, it makes me laugh. 

Rosamund Pike was vacant, hardly there either mentally or physically and initially I had that down to a poor performance. Her previous roles have always been so minor, that it was as if she had continued that run of form by becoming a rigid member of the supporting cast. After a bit of a back-and-forth with one of my friends, I went and rewatched segments of the film and realised that her demeanour was wholly intentional. For reasons I will not go into, at risk of exposing the predictable twist, be sure of one thing, that Pike & Affleck are putting their doubters away in this film.

It challenges gender stereotypes, our use of the media for information, the medias behaviour itself and our seeming enjoyment of gratuitous violence. It covers a lot of ground but does it in quite a roundabout way, never too sure of it’s direction. However, the film has made a popular book even more popular, and the film itself has done incredibly well. I would not be surprised to see it on a number of end of year lists, and it is great to see a film in the thriller genre do so well in the mainstream. 

In hindsight, I was too harsh on it after first watching it. I am glad I have had time to reflect before sticking this up. It starts out better than it finishes, but you can’t deny that it was a slick looking film with a handful of good performances. Even Tyler Perry took a break from dressing up as a woman to give us a good show. Hopefully this is the first of many thriller films that we see make it into the mainstream, because it’s been bloody ages since something of this sort was shown so widely.