Gone Girl Review (SPOILER HEAVY)

For those of you who haven't already read the book or seen the movie, I encourage you stay away from this review until you do both. However, if you can't help yourself, then at least I can say you were warned.

When I heard David Fincher was announced as the choice to helm Gillian Flynn's masterful novel, "Gone Girl", I knew that this was a match made in heaven. Gone Girl plays to the strengths of being in Fincher's wheelhouse; the story focuses on the disappearance of Amy Dunne, whose husband Nick comes home on their 5th anniversary and sees signs of a struggle.

Nick (played by Ben Affleck) immediately calls the police, who send over Detective Boney (Kim Dickens) and her partner Jim (played by Patrick Fugit). From the second she walks in, Boney assesses the house as a crime scene, placing post-it in questionable areas for later examination. The table in the living room is shattered, and there's a tiny blood spatter in the kitchen, while the ironing board is out with a dress ready to be ironed, with the front door left wide open. It seems as if Amy was taken.

So then why does Nick seem so emotionally aloof about the whole thing? From the moment he invites the police in, it seems as if he's just going through the motions. When asked what Amy does during the day, he says he doesn't know. He also doesn't know if she has any friends, or her blood type. "Were you guys really married?" Jim jokingly asks.

The film flips back and forth from the unfolding of the investigation, which reveals that Amy and Nick's marriage was much less than perfect, to diary entries from Amy, detailing her and Nick's early courtship to the eventual dissolution of their marriage. We're more inclined to side with Amy, because  the investigation and Amy's diary entries reveal a whole lot about Nick that paints him as a monster; he had a mistress (a young college student), he got abusive with Amy, he drained her of her trust fund and ignored her unless it was for sex. The police dig up credit card records that show Nick's hasty purchases placed the couple in debt, and he bumped up her life insurance to $1.2 million.

But at the film's thrilling climax, our perception of the entire incident is shattered, when we learn that Amy is not as reliable of a character as we've been taught to think the entire first half of the film. She's not dead, as every piece of evidence points to. In fact, the evidence was created by Amy herself; she is alive, and has manipulated every single character, and the audience, into looking at Nick as her murderer. She forged years worth of diary entries painting her as a meek, victimized wife and Nick her abuser. She had Nick unknowingly sign the document bumping up her own life insurance, and used Nick's credit cards to create the debt that would help paint Nick as the perfect suspect. We, much like the characters in this movie, have been played like pawns in a game of chess, with Amy's quick and witty hand moving us all in the position that suits her ultimate goal: destroying Nick for marrying her, and "throwing her away" for a younger woman.

Fincher and Flynn walk the tightrope masterfully; adapting her own novel into a film could not have been easy, but Flynn manages to airlift the same mystery and biting dialogue from her novel perfectly in Fincher's highly stylized, dark thriller. Every frame of this film offers something new, keeping us guessing. It's a beautiful collaboration, highlighted by the amazingly minimal, yet effective score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, who also worked with Fincher on "The Social Network" and "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo".

However, as much as the behind the scene work is effective in bringing this corn maze of a story to life, Fincher could not have pulled it off without his 2 leads; Fincher has managed to excavate a thrillingly multi-faced performance out of Ben Affleck, who has never been more effective on screen in his career. As an actor, Affleck is no stranger to criticism, with many always citing him as a weak link in any ensemble he's been apart of. And though he's found success behind the camera as director of "The Town" and the Oscar winning "Argo" his performance as Nick offers high hopes for his career as an actor. Though much of the credit goes to Fincher for using Affleck in the right way, the actor plays the role with perfect amount of intensity.

Rosamund Pike has been pegged by many, however, to be the member of the ensemble to go on to receive an Oscar nomination, and it's not hard to see why. Amy is a dream for any actress willing to explore a complex, headstrong character. She's never boring, and the one in the driver's seat; always one step ahead of everyone in the story, including the audience. If there's one flaw the film suffers (and it is a pretty substantial one, though many have managed to overlook it), it's not devoting enough time to Amy's diary entries, which is a bulk of the time we spend with Amy in the novel. We learn to trust her 100% through these entries, and since they're cut in half (possibly for running time's sake) in the film, the big reveal isn't as mind-shattering as it is in the novel (though it's still pretty surprising). Pike's performance, unfortunately, suffers as a result, and is really only allowed to explore the cold, calculating side of Amy, rather than the (fake) genuine, loving and warm side we see in these crucial diary entries. That being said, some of the film's final moments really are owned by Pike, and are deserving of awards in themselves; she goes through a spectrum of emotions, sometimes by not saying anything at all, and within mere seconds, just in the way she carries herself.

But despite that fault, Affleck and Pike's poker face performances, and Fincher's direction are commendable, and add so much to the story; it's hard imagining anyone else inhabiting these roles, whether in front or behind the camera. With Gone Girl, David Fincher has managed to create another thrilling character study to his already very exemplary filmography. Moviegoers that were disappointed by the gorgeous, but emotionally hollow Girl With the Dragon Tattoo will be more than happy here; despite being a tale of a cold, calculating chess game (otherwise known as marriage), Gone Girl is one of the most entertaining, and thrilling mysteries to hit the screen in a long while. It's a very wild, and grim ride.

Grade: A-

Oscar Chances: I'd be very surprised if the film was not present in the Best Picture, Best Actress, Adapted Screenplay and Cinematography categories. Fincher and Affleck may have a harder time cracking their respective categories; Director and Actor are very competitive this year. If the film is a box office success (which I believe it will be), Fincher may sneak in. Affleck, however, would need substantial guild support, and one of the "locks" (Steve Carrell, Michael Keaton, Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne) to fall through. I would personally love if Carrie Coon (who plays Nick's sister Margo) would get some Best Supporting Actress love. She steals all the scenes she's in, with a very minimal, refreshing grace that doesn't scream "scenery chewing", rather, comes very effortlessly.

Originally published by The Whit