Gone Girl - Movie Review

            

            The astounding director David Fincher (Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Social Network, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) gives us his latest installment, Gone Girl. This film includes stars such as Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. A story exploring the power of media, it pulled me in soon. I was engaged.

            On the anniversary of Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his wife Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike), Amy randomly goes missing, and although things have not been great between the two, Nick works to try to find her. Many people think Nick killed her because of what the media says, but the cops have no evidence, even though they are not exactly on his side.

            That is the initial plot of this movie, but it goes in so many different directions that it’s hard to summarize the primary plot of the movie without spoiling anything. But that is the plot of the first act of the film, and you can see where it goes from there…

            As reflected in my rating, I loved Gone Girl. This film was absolutely incredible. I was glued to the screen throughout the entire run time of this movie. And that is thanks to the incredible David Fincher as well as the main actors (Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, and Tyler Perry) and the screenplay writer, Gillian Flynn. Flynn actually wrote the novel and the screenplay. I have not read the novel, but the screenplay is incredible as well as the story, so I have little doubts that I would not enjoy the novel.

            As Fincher does in Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, he takes a 2 ½ hour movie and makes every moment count. He makes it seem fast-paced. He makes it seem like it’s less than 2 ½ hours long. He does that here. The film is long and many things happen in the film, but Fincher’s attention-to-detail direction makes this film enthralling. He of course makes a great-looking movie. The color scheme of the film is incredible. The cinematography and production design are fantastic to look at. The shots are framed so perfectly and the editing choices really put an impact on the film.

            After a while in this movie I stopped focusing on the filmmaking of the film because I was drawn in to the story. I was riveted. The film is so complex and all of the twists and turns work. They do not feel showy or flashy; they feel like they could actually happen given the past events. And even after the film would take a huge turn and the story would be flipped over, I was not pulled out of the movie and I never started enjoying it less.

            The dialogue in this movie is very thick and full of depth. It’s not like dialogue in some movies where it’s just plot exposition and stupidity. Here, it seems like real conversation and it adds so much depth to the characters. It is used to further the plot at times, but it’s also used to make scenes enthralling at times. It’s used to make the film more realistic. It’s used to make the film better.

            There is no “character development” section of this movie at the beginning. Yes, the plot does not start immediately. We do have a little time to introduce the situation…but the plot does get started very quickly. The character development lasts the entire film. The characters are developed inside of the action and through the plot. There is some dialogue that we learn about them from, but we also learn a lot about them from their actions in the plot. Because of this, the plot never turns off so we can learn a quick fact about the main character; the plot is always on and so is the character development. And because of that, nearing the end of the film I started to think about what the characters were thinking. I was trying to get into their heads and find out what they were planning to do. They were so thick and so developed that it was almost like they were real people. It’s very hard, but there are some films that can almost make you think of its characters as real people. I didn’t quite get to the point in which I thought of these characters to be real, but the film was only one or two steps away from that.

            The performances in still film are fantastic. I think this may possibly be the best Ben Affleck performance in a film that he did not direct. He is so good here to give the character likability but also a strangeness that comes out later. He is very natural in his performance; he gives a lot to this character. Rosamund Pike is incredible here. She is absolutely fantastic. Tyler Perry is also great here. I was hard to picture him in his usual, silly roles while watching this movie. He has found a serious role that works so well for him. Neil Patrick Harris was…ok. He had some times when he seemed like he was acting; he seemed wooden at times. There were times that we seemed more natural as the character, but I can’t quite say if that was acting talent from him or directing talent from Fincher. But still, overall, the performances were very good.

            Throughout the first act of this film, the genius filmmaking by David Fincher combined with the strange ongoing music together creates a strange tone of… almost fakeness. The tone interplays with the story here… and I really think it shows Fincher’s talent here. He is able to create this tone with little other add-ons to help him. This tone is modified throughout the story, another reason I think that Fincher is an incredibly director. The changing tone is another thing in this movie that really makes it special.

            The incredibly filmmaking of David Fincher makes this film a riveting experience from beginning to end with no interruptions of the plot for something unnecessary. The character development happens inside of the plot. The huge twists and turns do not affect how enjoyable the film can be. It’s a tremendously entertaining and engaging film that had me on the edge of my seat. Gone Girl is one of my favorite films so far this year.