Movie review: Gone Girl - in thin air

Gone Girl does visual justice to Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel

David Fincher’s Gone Girl, an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s ridiculously addictive novel, is neither an improvement nor an embarrassment, but a decent visual companion to the wildly popular page-turner. If you have read the best-seller, you won’t be disappointed by Fincher’s take on it but it won’t necessarily enrich your reading experience either.

For those who haven’t read the book, Nick and Amy are a match made neither in heaven nor hell, but on Earth, which is a combination of the two places. The couple can be both angelic and demonic (to each other) and it’s a recipe ripe for disaster. But when Amy mysteriously disappears on the day of their fifth anniversary, it comes as a shock to Nick. As far as he is concerned, his marriage might not have been perfect, but there wasn’t any cause for concern either. Or so, we are led to believe. Slowly the plot unravels — the police find Amy’s diary, incriminating Nick. The husband becomes the prime suspect, a media witch-hunt gets going and even Nick’s closest allies turn sour towards him. Where the hell is Amy?

The film stays very true to the novel in terms of the structure. The first half is a mix of the initial investigation, cut to dreamlike flashback scenes out of Amy’s diary. The second half is predictably darker, crazier and depending at how you look at it, funnier. For what is Gone Girl really but a very dark comedy about marriage and that uncomfortable but inevitable notion of never getting to fully know the person one has agreed to spend a whole lifetime with. And the entire subplot of how our parents unknowingly cause lasting damages is very prevalent throughout — Amy’s psychiatrist parents ‘use’ her daughter’s life as a template for their once-successful book series Amazing Amy, which explains a lot about Amy’s mental state.

More than Fincher’s assured direction, or Trent Reznor’s eerie, unsettling score, this is a film about great actors. This might be Ben Affleck’s best work yet, finely treading the line between the creepy guy grinning at his wife’s disappearance and the vulnerable guy caught in a bad situation. And what to say of Rosamund Pike? Her acting, evoking memories of Hitchcock’s heroines, can easily be termed as the year’s breakthrough performance. But there are other relatively unknown actresses who shine as well, such as Kim Dickens or Carrie Coon. Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris are perfectly cast in their respective roles too; so, the assumption that this is meant to be a funny film might not be too far off.

As aforementioned, Gone Girl, the film is not in any way above the book. It is a mood piece, if anything, to be watched as a visualisation of the book, not as a standalone project. It adds nothing to the story, but it’s not in any way an irritating attempt of bringing the characters from the page to the screen either. It’s a bit unnecessary, but worth your time once you can get past that.

If you are in the mood for more thrillers, watch

1.  Vertigo 



A police detective experiences an incident on the job that causes him to develop acrophobia and vertigo. Now retired, he is asked by a freind to privately investigate his wife whose strange behaviour leaves him obsessed with uncovering the truth.

2. Basic Instinct 



Police detective Nick Curran is investigating the brutal murder of a wealthy rock star who was stabbed to death in his apartment. In the process, he finds himself involved with the prime suspect of the murder and becomes deeply entangled in the clever games she plays.

3.  Zodiac 



An unknown man attacks a couple, leaving one of them dead. Now the police are desperately hunting for a serial killer known as Zodiac. He taunts them with threatening letters, coded messages and sends them blood-stained clothes. Will he be caught before he takes his next victim?

Rating 3/5

Schayan Riaz is a Germany-based writer. He tweets @schayanriaz 

Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, November 2^nd, 2014.