Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike (image via WikiCommons)
In a word: twisty
Movie Pieces Rating: 4.5*/5
Nestled in the movie release calendar, next to the superhero tentpoles and the Young Adult adaptations, a deliciously grownup, multi-layered film like Gone Girl feels like a long-forgotten gem.
Amy and Nick Dunne are the dream team. A high-flying New Yorker couple who move to Kevin’s sleepy home-town when his mum gets sick. One day – on their anniversary in fact – Kevin comes home to find signs of a violent break-in and his wife missing. But it’s not long before he’s cast into a nightmarish world when suspicion falls on him, and their whole life together comes under scrutiny from police, neighbours and, the inevitable media circus.
Ben Affleck is perfectly cast as the cocky, slightly too charming husband who seems to get less trustworthy with every word he utters. Rosamund Pike is a revelation as Amy, the Hitchcock blonde-esque child star, who is seen completely differently by each person who knows her. She is fascinating, yet unknowable which gives every second of her screen time an “edge of the seat” quality.
Like Argo, which also stars Ben Affleck, Gone Girl (an adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s bestseller) is an entertaining thriller that gallops through its running time with more twists and turns than you could shake a fist at. And like Argo it also shares complicated themes and characters that avoid the simple good/bad dichotomy that most modern thrillers fall into so easily. As an audience you can’t slack off while watching Gone Girl – you’re constantly tested on what you’re seeing, and prevented from taking an easy value position. That might sound rather worthy or like hard work but far from it. Gone Girl is intelligent, clever filmmaking but it’s wickedly enjoyable at the same time.
Reviews I rate: Gone Girl
Cinephile: David M. Keyes’s Gone Girl review
Variety: Justin Chang’s Gone Girl review
Movie Pieces 