Based on a novel by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl throws the audience into a tough situation where a husband, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), comes home one day to find his wife, Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), missing. He comes home to a shattered coffee table and signs of a struggle. After calling the police, he soon finds himself on the other end of the stick with the media, friends and even family turning on him and suspecting him of possibly murdering his wife. Of course, not everything is as it seems.
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Gone Girl is an impressively complex film, and you would assume so because David Fincher directed it. It is divided quite distinctively into three acts. Each act is a sudden and abrupt shift from the last, which isn’t common in a movie that is done so damn well. Anyway, the first act I will get into with you, but if you want any element of surprise then turn away/skip the ‘SPOILER ALERT’ sections for acts two and three in this review.
And without further delay, let’s get into this sucker.
The film starts out with obvious trouble in paradise. Nick Dunne is a dull, obviously unhappy man with his marriage. He spends his days wasting time in front of the television and when he’s not there, he’s spending his days at a bar he co-owns with his sister. He is a struggling, out of work writer that is simply lost in life. After spending some time with his sister at the beginning of act one, he comes home to an open house and his wife missing on their anniversary. Dunne panics, calls the police and immediately the police think something doesn’t feel right about the situation.
The movie at the beginning doesn’t hold back. We get some great imagery about where Nick Dunne is in life. He looks unhappy, acts unhappy and has no expression of ‘life’ on his face. We know from the first 10 minutes of film that Dunne is simply trying to find something to be happy about. It’s quite sad and it makes you feel bad for the guy. It also makes you wonder how he got to this place in his life.
To help push that along, there is calculated narration led by Amy Dunne that is used when it needs to develop the point and the situation for the audience. Once the audience gets emotionally involved with Nick and his current mindset, the film starts to change its colors a bit as the police slowly begin to uncover clues and cause Nick to behave erratic. By the end of the first act the film has now planted the seed that Nick Dunne might have murdered his wife. What does help push the ‘Nick might have killed her’ agenda along is that Amy’s information and progression towards telling backstory moments between her and Nick go from lighthearted lovers to a frightfully broken couple. Keep track of those moments, as they do have some relevance in future acts. These types of storylines cause so much emotional investment that regardless of how act two and three play out, you’re hopelessly stuck with seeing who the hell caused all this mess and why.
*SPOILERS BEGIN*
So by the end of the first act we’re at the peak of suspicion about Nick. He is in a bad spot and the spot keeps getting deeper and worse for him. You want to see how far down he can go, but at the same time you’re wishing there was a turn in the story. Well, the turn happens. The movie shifts into something unexpected — complete reveal of what happened with Amy Dunne. You read that right, you basically have the mystery solved for you and explained to you. Amy had completely set up Nick in the worst methodical way possible. She hated her marriage and what it had become, and hated Nick for letting what they had together completely slip away. So, instead of boiling a rabbit in a pot, Amy has decided to frame her husband for murder because he doesn’t love her anymore.
In short, she is a psychopath.
She had planted items and drawn her own blood on the kitchen floor to make it seem like a murder. She had done things like upgrade her insurance policy and max out credit cards to make it seem like Nick was irresponsible and ruthless. All of this because she was unhappy. The film continues with her and makes room for a secondary storyline that parallels what is happening with Nick. As Amy is getting away scot-free, and planning the rest of her short life out (which includes ending in suicide to put the nail in Nick’s coffin), she runs into some trouble herself. It not only wrecks her plan, but forces her to completely re-adjust and rethink what she wanted to do.
On Nick’s end of the equation, his affair with another woman is exposed, which compounds and ruins his image, which was loving husband who wants to find his wife badly. By the end of act two, Nick is close to going to jail for a crime he didn’t commit.
Act two is so unusual. Typically, at least the way this story is heading, this would be the conclusion to some movie where the husband is revealed to be the real problem and the wife rides off into the sunset. Instead, Fincher turns the tables and shows all the story’s cards to the viewer. He does so in almost a challenge sort of way, where he wants the viewer to figure out the true motivation. Also, he presents the viewer a conundrum — who are you going to side with? The cheating husband that hates his marriage so much that he doesn’t care about his wife’s well being? Or are you going to side with the psychopath wife that is out to ruin her husband for everything he put her through — which isn’t a lot? In short, he wants to know who we think is the real victim in this situation? It’s an easy answer, but nonetheless an intriguing one.
As act two comes to a conclusion, the storyline is out of sorts and there isn’t a way (unless you read the book) to figure out the outcome of this one. It’s not a typical movie by any stretch of the imagination, but, it’s beautifully woven together to keep a storyline strongly intact and together, especially for act three.
Act three becomes a wild ride. As it is with Fincher films, little clues and foreshadowing sprinkled around the story in acts one and two come into play as we’re heading towards the conclusion of the film. A man named Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris), who Amy had led on for 20 years (you get more info about him in the first two acts), but also had arrested for stalking her, comes to the rescue of Amy when she gets screwed over. His intentions are good, but his timing couldn’t be worse, as Amy feeds him a story of how Nick beat her and made her fear for her life, which helps her to explain why she hasn’t come forth yet saying she is alive. To get out of her current situation and web of lies, Amy uses Desi as a kidnapper (he doesn’t see it coming). Of course, by the end of act three, even after Nick has gone through a ton of shit to protect his name and uncover Amy’s methodical ploy, both Nick and Amy are reunited.
What happens next? You’ll either have to watch the film or read the book. I can guarantee you that it is enormously f**cked up.
*SPOILERS END*
The final act in the film comes together brilliantly, though there are some loose ends that don’t get tied up (not going to reveal what those are, but you’ll see). Regardless, the final act will have you dragging your jaw on the floor and turning to your significant other and saying, “Seriously, what the f**k?” — it’s just that good. Having seen so many movies over the last decade and reviewing so many similar stories, I’m always impressed with how Fincher keeps the material fresh and keeps his audience guessing. I’m enormously impressed with Gone Girl, as I think there was no firm, predictable ground to stand on when trying to figure out Amy and Nick’s motivations and ‘next step’ in the story. This was a unique film and one that might have rubbed some critics and audience members the wrong way — especially the ending — because it wasn’t predictable.
Gone Girl is another Fincher classic that deserves room by Seven, Fight Club, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network on your movie shelf. As with all David Fincher films, I might revisit this one again in the next year, as it is emotionally draining, but until then I highly recommend this one. The man knows how to direct, as well as pick the appropriate actors for the job.
On the Blu-ray side of the equation, Gone Girl is gorgeous Fox transfer. The tone in which the film is shot is beautiful in HD. The shift in colors between Amy and Nick (representing their situations — blue tint for Nick, yellow/red for Amy) is flawless. You get some great colors coming through in HD, as well as zero quality issues (no graininess, artifacts, color banding, etc.). 20th Century Fox fluctuates quite a bit with its movie transfers, but they nailed this one. Definitely worth the price of admission on Blu-ray.
The special features side of things isn’t that impressive, as you only get solid commentary from David Fincher. The Blu-ray does include an ‘Amazing Amy’ booklet, which is both funny and messed up. Other than those things, not much else. The commentary is very good, though.
