Movie Review: Gone Girl (2014)

IMDb Plot: 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.

Rating: 9/10

After spending this past week watching Homeland Season 4 and then Gone Girl, I think my mind has been broken beyond repair. What a phenomenal movie. I am sure it is one of the most unique films out there, and it is definitely one of the best movies of 2014 for me.

Plot development:

I haven’t read the book yet and purposefully kept myself from reading reviews because I didn’t want anything to be spoilt for me. Obviously I had then no idea what was cooking, and not even once did I expect it to go that way. The big reveal was truly a big reveal to me because I’m usually unfortunate enough to figure out the plot twist before it even happens.

Character development

In what might very be Ben Affleck’s defining movie role, he is the perfect Nick Dunne. He seems so charming and likeable – that guy everyone has to be friends with. Every time you think Nick is responsible behind his wife’s disappearance, you think: “but he’s so nice, could he really do it?”

Here is thus another thing I took from the movie: the crowd helping search for Amy is pretty much me watching the movie – endlessly going back and forth between Nick’s innocence and his guilt.

 

Amy Dunne… you are unique. I don’t recall ever finding such a mysterious, well layered female character on the big screen. Why she is the way she is very clear – just imagine if your parents wrote books about the better version of you? If you had to live your entire life knowing that you were rolling in cash because Amazing Amy had provided it? I would probably ended up way more unstable than Amy Dunne. Her clearheaded approach to leaving her husband and his downfall is the eeriest thing I have ever watched. She is clearly at the very least a sociopath (or potential serial killer), but also just sitting and thinking about her childhood and then finding out her husband wants a newer, better version of her doesn’t condone what she did but you get why her character would react like that. Her reaction to being robbed by Jeff and Greta was very significant – that violent screaming that no one would list as a character trait for a pretty, preppy girl. Rosamund Pike was phenomenal – she managed to look the part – pretty, preppy and everything her man wanted, but there was something cold, distant and calculating in her eyes from the very start.

Tanner Bolt: You two are the most fucked up people I’ve ever met and I deal with fucked up people for a living.

Tyler Perry as Tanner Bolt: Perfect, again. Tanner Bolt was the true essence of what it means to be slimy lawyer. He was slick, charming and very comfortable in the spotlight. Yet, his arrogance was not misplaced. He believed his client’s preposterous story gave expert advice and managed to get Nick and Margo out of their prison cells very quickly. I really don’t watch a lot of Tyler Perry’s work, but he was very good in here.

I loved the relationship between Margo and Nick. They acted like siblings do, brutally honest with each other and with no pretense. I appreciated her giving Nick huge amounts of grief for his extramarital affair, his actions and temper.

 

Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collins: He was also good, but I think his performance was the weakest of the cast. However, he did come across as completely obsessed with Amy, and the creepy way he immediately put her in that majestic “cage” the second she had nowhere else to go. The scene where he dies is one of the best death scenes I have seen – it was brutal and horrific and showed you exactly how insane Amy truly is.

Themes and concepts:

Shows you… no matter how sweet the first kiss is, things can quickly become distasteful. 

Gone Girl is a case study about modern day relationships, particularly marriages, and how two people who once adored each other can end up purposefully setting out to hurt the other. True, it is an extreme case, but it whispers the truth about what is going on behind the perfect doors of suburban life.

I wouldn’t want to spoil this for anyone, so I will be vague and hopefully those who’ve watched it knows what I’m referring to: Eventually I had this strange and grudging respect for the one character and the other one had a horrible situation but I still felt that the person was wrong and nothing could be done to fix a morally broken character.

If you have been branded guilty by the media, you don’t stand a chance. Modern day technology and the full power of social media are well explored in Gone Girl. The obsessive news coverage of Amy’s disappearance and how it was immediately open season on the dissection of Nick’s character is exactly how it is done in real life. Tanner Bolt knew that he had to make his client gain sympathy – or else Nick would not stand a chance. Ellen Abbot (Missi Pyle) was particularly a character that showed how heartless TV hosts could be and how they would immediately turn around and take your hand if public opinion was on your side.

Conclusion:

The only letdown was the end. Amy wins, and Nick is her little bitch. I do find it a polarizing view of relationships and I do agree that this movie can affirm the notion that feminism promotes the emasculation of men. It would have felt like justice if Amy was caught out and her madness revealed to the world – just imagine how Amazing fucking Amy would have flourished then.

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January 20, 2015January 16, 2015 by Natasha Categories: Movies, ReviewsTags: Amazing Amy, Amy Dunne, Ben Affleck, Movies, Neil Patrick Harris, Nick Dunne, Reviews, Rosamund Pike, Tyler Perry 14 Comments