Gone Girl |
| That smile is the best evidence of Affleck's perfect casting. |
A local
man’s wife goes missing. There is
evidence of a struggle. The man, over
the course of the first days of the disappearance, acts strangely and appears
to be increasingly guilty. Does this
sound like the set up to the year’s smartest, most biting comedy? Strangely enough, it is. Gone Girl, the insanely popular novel by
Gillian Flynn (who also wrote the screenplay), had its darkly comedic moments,
but overall the novel maintained an acerbic tone as it dissected a toxic
marriage and the media circus of disappearances/murders. The film maintains that tone but also
elevates the source material by becoming a somewhat absurdist comedy. It’s almost as if Flynn realized as she was
adapting it that a lot of the plot, simply over the top on the page, would
become silly on the screen. It’s a good
thing she did because it made Gone Girl not only interesting, but
entertaining as well.
The
specific story of Gone Girl concerns Nick Dunne (a perfectly cast Ben
Affleck), a failed New York journalist who returns to his economically down-turned Missouri home with his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), a New
York woman through and through (and the subject of a children’s book series
written by her parents titled Amazing Amy).
Their marriage deteriorates over the course of a couple years in
Missouri, and on the day of their fifth anniversary, Amy goes missing. That sounds more like the plot to your
typical Lifetime movie, but to say much more would spoil the bulk of the
film.
The
film jumps around narratively so both sides of the relationship are featured,
and this allows for plenty of fears of marriage to be tossed around (cheating,
money, complacency, bitterness, etc.).
It ends up being a darkly funny look at all the fears married couples
(or just people in relationships in general) go through. The basic question being: how much can you
really know anyone? This isn’t a new
question for a film. (The Rules of
Attraction comes to mind, when James Van Der Beek’s character flat out says,
“No one ever knows anyone.”) And
marriage is often the subject of a film (my favorite film about marriage, or
rather, the fears of marriage, would have to be Eyes Wide Shut). But Gone Girl is unique in that it doesn’t
present itself as a case study about marriage.
It’s an absurdist dark comedy about marriage.
Who
better for an absurdist dark comedy than David Fincher? Director Fincher may not be the first name
brought up when it comes to comedy, but when you check his filmography (Fight Club, Se7en, Zodiac, The Social Network), you see that a
number of his films are flat out comedic or at least contain quite a few darkly
comedic moments. Some questioned his
decision to take on such a popular novel for his latest film, but once you see
it, you understand why the director, famous for filming dozens of takes for
particular scenes, is perfect for this source material. On the page, Flynn wrote dialogue in many
scenes as sparsely as possible. On the
screen, reaction shots are necessary.
This is why Fincher was perfect for this; his multiple takes allowed him
to capture the best facial responses to the insanity of the story. Hats off to Patrick Fugit (Almost Famous)
for providing the funniest nonverbal reactions.
Because of this, the audience is so used to seeing these silent
reactions that when Nick’s lawyer (portrayed by a great Tyler Perry) states,
“You two are the most f-ed up people I’ve ever met,” it gets a huge laugh (or
at least it did in my theater) because someone finally said it out loud.
Those people
Perry is referring to are impressively portrayed by Affleck and Pike. Everyone knows who Affleck is, and we’re all
on board with his career resurgence of late.
I never found him to be lacking in acting ability (his role choice is
another question), so it was great to see him in a part seemingly written
exclusively for him: a character that many people seem to want to hate (just
look at the typical internet reaction to Affleck’s casting as the new Batman),
but really can’t help his nature. To be
certain, Affleck is not Nick, but it’s easy to confuse the two, which is a
credit to his performance that will almost certainly get ignored in the coming
awards season (they already gave him Oscars for writing and directing, it’s
doubtful they’ll add acting anytime soon).
Rosamund
Pike is lesser known but her work here is just as impressive. Without spoiling anything, she gets a bit
more to do than the other characters, and she handles it all very convincingly. The film opens with Nick narrating, wondering
what goes on in Amy’s mind, and Pike does a great job at conveying that
mystery. There’s so much going on in her
eyes and reactions.
The
supporting cast is just as perfectly cast as the leads. The aforementioned Fugit and Perry surprised
in their roles (it’s hard to imagine the kid from Almost Famous as a
detective or Madea as a lawyer). Kim
Dickens (under-appreciated in nearly everything she does), as the lead
detective, is effective as she puzzles through the story, providing a cipher
for the audience. Carrie Coon provides
another cipher role for the audience as Nick’s sister and provides plenty of
comedic relief, as well. You get the
idea; it’s a great cast through and through.
The
writing, directing, and acting are all great, but the music truly completes
this film. The score (by recent Fincher
mainstays Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) for Gone Girl gets under your
skin. While the film is funny, it is
also filled with tense moments. The
tension created by the script and performances is already apparent, but that
distracting score adds the finishing touch.
A good score isn’t necessarily supposed to be noticed, and Reznor and
Ross concocted a perfect blend of…well, noise that pervades throughout the film
cutting off just at the moment it becomes impossible to ignore.
If
Gone Girl accomplishes anything, it presents a certain despairing mood about
a toxic marriage. It’s truly a
nihilistic, somewhat angry film peopled with (mostly) unlikable/despicable
characters. Somehow, however, Fincher and
company have turned this into one of the year’s funniest, most enjoyable film
experiences.
Gone Girl receives a:
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