Having purposely kept myself in the dark regarding the central conceit at the core of Gillian Flynn’s best-selling novel “Gone Girl,” I approached David Fincher’s adaptation of it ready to be knocked back on my heels. I wasn’t disappointed. Containing a plot that doubles back on itself more than once, an engaging mystery that, however improbable, plays fair with the audience in the way it dispenses its clues and genuine performances across the board, bringing a variety of layers to their complex roles, this is one of the best movies of 2014.
When we first meet Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), he’s a man at the end of his rope. Having moved back to the dying small town of his youth, Carthage, Missouri, from New York City after losing his job as a writer, he’s at a loss as to what to buy his lovely wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) for their fifth anniversary. Certain she will have an elaborate scavenger hunt planned for him, Nick knows that, par for the course, his efforts will fail to live up to those of his spouse. However, this becomes the least of his worries when he returns home to find that his house has been broken into and that Amy is nowhere to be found. Soon, local detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) determines that she’s been kidnapped, a bit of news the media devours and blows out of proportion as Amy was the basis for a beloved character (“Amazing Amy”) from a series of children’s books. As days go by and the search for the missing woman proves futile, Nick becomes the prime suspect in what is assumed to be her murder.
More than anything, dating and marriage are pilloried in the film, the former seen as a ritual in which we willingly put forth the best image of ourselves in order to snare a mate, only to have to suppress our true selves in order for the relationship to survive. Both Nick and Amy are guilty of this and the results of each being dishonest with each other and themselves is catastrophic. All that happens in the Dunne’s marriage is exaggerated for effect but at its core, “Gone Girl” speaks to the confusion that arises within as a result our compromising ourselves for what we think to be a greater good. In the end, we’re hardly recognizable to ourselves.
For a full review, go to http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2014-10-02/chuck-koplinski-identity-issues-propel-super-mystery-gone-girl.h
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