MOVIE REVIEW: “GONE GIRL” Is A Mess

David Fincher’s Gone Girl is bizarre; it’s set in a fictional world that feels real. Catered with an unsettling situation, it shows a misanthropic view of everyone: the predator, the prey, the spectators, and the media. Everything is filtered, with propaganda of some sort, and yet it works.

On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) comes home to find his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) gone. Nick begins to track down clues in search for his missing wife. From here we see Gillian Flynn, the author of the book who also penned the script, bouncing the couple’s story back from when the relationship works until it doesn’t.

During the investigation, we notice Nick doesn’t do well under the public eye and instantly he becomes America’s most hated man. Weird clues begin to surface and it’s the start of a classic he said, she said. Whodunneit?

Gone Girl shows the complex and crucial view of human personality and how it affects relationships. The narrative is told in a way that hits home: goes upward, then spiral downwards. Every step is calculated to reveal a mystery and the audience is placed on a crucial spot of choosing sides. The film triggered my sense of reality, asking me to judge the characters –and by that feeling alone, it’s been successful on critiquing me, us.

This is what Gone Girl does best: the characters being fleshed out by the judging eyes of the public. Fincher and Flynn is doing a social commentary by putting the ball on us, the audience, telling us how men prefer “cool girls,” how women just “bleed and clean,” or  simply how “marriage is hard work.” At some point it will subtly remind us of the definition of a “good girl.” The methods used in the film is efficient on the build up of a satirical thriller, cinematography is bleak which creates the chilly mood, and the musical scoring is eerie. The menacing perspective on the opening and closing scene is easily one of my favorites.

Also notable are the cast. Ben Affleck’s Nick is charming, mostly relaxed but practically a douche while Rosamund Pike’s Amy is served with chilly, deep voice, a brilliant performance that made her own this film. Tyler Perry as the lawyer, Kim Dickens as Detective Rhonda and Carrie Coon as Margo, are all but a brilliant supporting cast.

Overall, the film’s about truth, trust, and a perspective on the notion of just got married. It certainly puts marriage on a terrifying note and would definitely leave your mindset askew. If you ask me right after watching this, I’ll tell you that I feel like I don’t want to marry anymore!

This review was first published in the author’s blog, “Misstache.”