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doomonfilm · 5 years

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Thoughts : Gone Girl (2014)

I recently hit 500 posts, an achievement I’m very proud of, but it also coincided with a job transition, leading to an unfortunately-timed absence of content. As the transition settled and life begin to reshape itself, I found myself in the doldrums of first quarter releases, some of which did pique my interest, but many of which felt as if they could wait in terms of viewing. With that thought in mind, I dug back into the archives for films that I’ve owned but not viewed, and one contender jumped straight to the top : Gone Girl.

Amy Elliot Dunne (Rosamund Pike) is declared missing on her fifth wedding anniversary after her husband Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns home from The Bar, a local bar he runs with his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon), to find damage consistent with a kidnapping. Amy’s parents, Marybeth (Lisa Banes) and Rand Elliot (David Clennon), relocate to Missouri from New York to spearhead the missing person campaign, largely due to the family fame connected to the Amazing Amy series of books that the Elliot parents authored, with Amy’s real-life shortcomings serving as the basis for the titular character’s stories. Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens), the lead investigator on the case, works hard to be impartial, especially in light of her partner Officer James Gilpin‘s (Patrick Fugit) dislike of Nick. As the days roll by, public sentiment begins to sway against Nick and heavily in favor of the beloved Amy, but her famous habit of leaving anniversary ‘clues’ leads Nick to a series of awakenings that forces him, and in turn Amy, to reevaluate everything they thought they understood about their marriage.

David Fincher has always had a penchant for psychological thrillers, but with Gone GIrl, we are given a damning examination of marriage. From Nick’s side, we are shown a man that shoots upward, hitches his wagon to a star and immediately considers his work as a lover and husband done. To him, the chase and the catch were key, and once Amy was ‘his’, any need to inquire about her feelings, her history or her needs took a backseat to his own. The use of a family tragedy offered Nick the chance to emotionally manipulate Amy into leaving her comfort zone and nose-diving into his, only for her to become an accessory to him. This fact, however, does not absolve Amy of her dangerous history and pattern of emotional manipulation, which is heavily based on the entitlement that comes with her fame. While it is tragic that her life centered around objectification from her parents and lovers, the sheer depths that she goes to teach Nick a ‘lesson’ not only come off as extreme, but they put Amy in several dangerous moments.

The twisted chess of manipulation that Fincher presents plays upon familiar film elements, but the extremely natural presentation of the events to both the viewer and the characters in the world of the film makes the examination of Amy’s desperate acts shocking. It could be argued that her character is an updated take on the Black Widow mythos, but the waters are muddied by the aforementioned history of Amy’s lack of autonomy. Despite her being the star of every connection she takes part in, time and again she finds herself as the pawn of someone else’s will. Much like a cornered animal lashes out with surprising amounts of aggression and a disregard for its opponent’s well-being, the trail of destruction that Amy leaves in her wake is extreme and shocking, which makes her natural demeanor ring with a sinister tone.

David Fincher films have always had a distinct, dark look to them, like a version of dramatic neo-noir, and this look works to great impact in Gone Girl, hanging an implied tone right from the beginning of the film that the narrative slowly unveils. The pacing of said narrative, as well as the mix of current-day moments and memories that may not be what they seem upon first glance, flows about as close to a book as film can, making this an extremely successful adaptation. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross bring their distinct, moody and dark scoring to the table, but manage to use so much restraint and choice of key placements to shine that they become a shadow character, paralleling Fincher’s visual cues with audio ones.

Ben Affleck naturally tows the line between obnoxiously charming and oddly dislikeable, and those qualities are honed in on directly for his role as Nick, with him serving as one of the most complex protagonists committed to film in recent memory in turns of audience trust and compassion. In turn, Rosamund Pike manages to force a sinister charm onto her performance, managing to make viewers consider her side despite a clear and present path of destruction. Carrie Coon helps referee the absurdity, helping to guide the viewer emotionally, though not necessarily on a one-to-one path paralleling the viewer experience, and her pairing with Patrick Fugit helps sell her as the heavy cop in terms of attitude. Tyler Perry, who admittedly is not one of my favorite members of the film world, comes close to stealing the show with his bold, brash, candid and brutally honest performance. Neil Patrick Harris helps anchor down the edginess for the final third of the the film, with his pairing against Pike providing some truly captivating cinema. Appearances by Scoot McNairy, Missi Pyle, Emily Ratajkowski, Lisa Banes, David Clennons and a handful of others keep the high drama alive throughout.

In what will probably be a quote I’m remembered for long after I’m gone, I don’t know why it took me so long to get around to this film. I’ve been a long-time fan of Fincher’s work, and Gone Girl is arguably some of his best. He may have bigger, more well-known and flashier work, but the human element truly shines in this film, and upon its conclusion, we are not only left with a number of questions about the film, but a few about ourselves and the way we connect with others.

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