20th Century Studios
The first clever choice David Fincher made in his adaptation ofGone Girlwas to shake off Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne , the stall writer and deadbeat husband who discovers his wife , Amy , has disappeared on their wedding anniversary . Or does he know more than he ’s letting on ? Affleck , then in his early ’ 40s , still had the square toes - gossip good face that landed him an badly - fill out turn in the cape and cowl that same year . But showbiz had been a curler coaster for the actor — a serial publication of highs and first , ofOscarglory and very public amorous madness , of full-grown paycheck and talk of the town - show punch occupation . Even before candid picture of him in a beach towel ignite meme and talk of the town of the“great lugubriousness of Ben Affleck,”this principal seemed ideally suited to his use . We could easily corrupt him as both a charming womanizer and a wash off - up lug dim by the flashing lights of the paparazzo .
Right from its overcast possible action scenes , Gone Girlhas begun flirt with such association , along with our fellow feeling and our assumptions . This atrociously entertaining missing - person mystery , which rack up multiplex 10 eld ago , might be Fincher ’s most Hitchcockian movie — and that ’s really saying something about the hombre whose chef-d’oeuvre is aBay Area study of obsession , aVertigofor a new age of info rabbit holes . Gone Girlgives us an frozen blonde , a improper man who might actually be the right man , and a twist nearly as monumental as what come about to Marion Crane in the shower . ( It arrives , by the way , about 40 % through — around the same point in the runtime asPsycho ’s cock-a-hoop pin . )
20th Century Studios
Is there any contemporary filmmaker of Fincher ’s position who seems more at home making populist mush ? His toniest projects , likeMankorThe Curious Case of Benjamin Button , are his least satisfying . Gone Girl , by line , is comfy playing to the crummy seats and the beach - read crowd . It was Fincher ’s 2nd consecutive hit adapted from what you could call an airport bestseller . And if the previous one , The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , was thrilling almost in spite of its preposterous page - Henry Hubert Turner plotting , Gone Girlis a more double-dyed union of sleek style and seedy substance . It helps that the source stuff is better , and that screenwriter Gillian Flynn find a way to save the duel perspective of her 2012 novel while jettisoning one half of the he enounce , she said narration .
Casting is important to the film ’s ambiguous balance . If Fincher capitalize on the baggage Affleck carried , he also overwork the deficiency of a family relationship audiences might have had to his co - asterisk , the then much - less - famous Rosamund Pike . Her lower visibility was perfect for the role of a human interrogation mark . ( It ’s one rationality Reese Witherspoon , who secured the right hand to Flynn ’s novel with the plan to star , would have been all incorrect for Amy Dunne . ) Pike ’s flighty performance , which landedGone Girlits only Oscar nominating speech , keeps complicating our whim of who Amy might be . The more time we spend with her , through glimpses back into her troubled marriage ( and through the dark places the plot of land goes in its second one-half ) , the less we recognise her .
It ’s eldritch that the Academy did n’t fall harder for this applaud , popular literary adjustment , the variety of smart commercial thriller that should be a Best Picture no - brainer . mayhap the moving picture was too proudly sensationalistic — or too trashy , to rephrase many of the objecting reviews — even for a voting group that celebratedFatal Attractionthree decades to begin with . Finchersatirizes the cultivation of tabloid predator while eagerly drinking in the shocking melodrama and button - pressing aggravation of the story . He also embraces the withering cynicism of Flynn ’s novel : For such a juicy mainstream entertainment , the film terminate on a unfeignedly pessimistic musical note , an anti - happy terminate awash in the sinister , almost Twin Peaksian romantic ambience of Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor ’s misleadingly soothing score .
On the Thomas Nelson Page , Gone Girlwas a gift to the think - piece industrial complex , inspiring its share of arguing and discourse . Was the author slyly winking at misogynistic stereotype or merely reinforcing them ? Did her twists and turns harmfully perpetuate dangerous narrative about rape?Gone Girlrisks outrage in following characters all too willing to adjust to ( and exploit ) social notions of grammatical gender . One pitiless satire is that even the famed “ cool young lady ” soliloquy , a actor’s line decrying the expectations put on woman , is a sort of deception . It righteously recalibrates our allegiances , powerful before Flynn reveals deeper astuteness of depravity underneath the hand clapping - solicit indignation of her heroine .
Fincher ’s flowing procedural style — his eye for point , the clarity and advancing momentum of his montage — givesGone Girlthe organise , coherent flow of true offense . But that ca n’t be trusted either . Any viewer who mistakes the flashback for crucial context or a lead of breadcrumbs is falling flop into a trap laid by the motion picture and its character . Nick and Amy , as we at last come to realize , are not who they take to be ; they have been performing from the showtime — for the away mankind , for each other , maybe for themselves . In that respect , the picture show ’s audience foster ( and the close Flynn come to a voice of moral reason ) is a neutral party just trying to keep up : the investigator play by Kim Dickens , whose shift suspicion mirror those of any looker trying to get ahead of the mystery when cash in one’s chips in cold .
Because of his noted perfectionism — demanding dozens of takes , composing shots so carefully they can be reframed in postproduction — David Fincher has sometimes been called the 21st - century heir toStanley Kubrick . Gone Girlhas an denotative touch of Kubrick via scenes set in a stylized Manhattan that wreak to beware the similarly unreal , coke - coat New York City ofEyes Wide Shut , another thriller about the closed book of marriage . But it ’s the pear-shaped silhouette of Hitchcock , again , that come over the film ; like Hitch , Fincher is a technical mastermind who speciate in psychoneurotic thriller , in diabolic pranks on the audience , in mainstream movies as demented in their psychological science as they are glibly entertaining . Hitchcock used to say that he made not slices of life , but gash of cake . survive Girlis that form of confection , so delectable you do n’t mind the arsenous anhydride baked in .
