Review of Gone Girl

Last night I saw Gone Girl, and it was awesome. David Fincher is so good at setting a film's tone and applying it to the story.The movie had an empty, dark feel to it. The empty feel of the environment,
I really appreciate when a film's trailer only tells a part of the story, and this is definitely the case with Gone Girl. The story expanded on so much more than I expected. The trailer told us that a husband's wife is missing, and that the husband is suspected of killing her. I was happy to see that this was only about 40% of the story, and that the film left out a lot in the advertisements.

The next paragraph will have spoilers. If you plan on seeing the movie. Skip to the next paragraph.

If you're reading this, then that means you've probably seen the movie. The movie didn't include David Fincher's first death scene, but it's definitely not his forte. However, Neil Patrick Harris' death was my favorite part of the movie. It comes out of nowhere, and is both exactly what you'd expect from the murderer, but not something you wanted to happen. You feel for the character's death in such an interesting way. I also loved how Nick was consistently called a sociopath by the media, and his wife a warm, passionate, loving wife. We learn later that this is completely backwards. I think this showed us how the media only tells the story it wants to tell, rather than the truthful one. The media attacked Nick as a hateful, sociopath. They even convince the public that Nick and his twin sister are dabbling with incest. Even when Nick confronted the media with this, thew blew it off as Nick's problem.

Before seeing the movie, I was nervous to see Tyler Perry's name in the cast. Not that he's a bad actor, but I was worried that he would ruin the tone that was set. But he did an impressive job. He was able to play the comic relief subtle enough so that it kept to the movie's environment. Not to mention doing so as a character important to the plot.

You could kind of tell Ben Affleck was preparing for the role of Batman while shooting Gone Girl. They did a decent job hiding it, but there were times you couldn't help but notice how in shape he was for the role. Before seeing the moving, the one thing I kept hearing about the movie was the ending. People seemed pretty upset about how it ends, and I can see why. The movie's ending isn't abrupt or poorly made. It's not poorly written, and still fits the movie. It's just unsatisfying. The movie leaves you with a sour taste in your mouth, and wishing something happened.

12 Years a Slave had an ending that was similar. Steve McQueen ends his film with the idea that slavery is something America will always have to remember, no matter where the country is. Slaves never received full redemption, and neither will African Americans. The film ends in an unsatisfactory fashion because slavery in America did.

But the difference between the endings of Gone Girl and 12 Years A Slave is whom that ends up dissatisfied. 12 Years a Slave left the audience unsatisfied with the main character, but pleased with how the movie itself ended. Gone Girl left the audience unsatisfied with the main character, and displeased with how the movie itself ended.

But see the movie. It's well worth your money. And bring some candy. I was reminded before he movie how expensive concession stand food is.

-Ryan