Gone Girl

American Writer Gillian Flynn first had her psychological thriller, Gone Girl, published as a novel in 2012. The book became hugely popular selling 1.8 million copies, and topping the New York Times fiction best-seller list for 8 weeks.

She later wrote the screenplay enabling it to be transformed into a captivating big-hit film released last month.

20^th Century Fox bought the adaptation rights, and actress Reese Witherspoon was involved in its production.

She was quoted to say: “You really can’t anticipate where it’s going, but it’s one of those books you can’t stop reading.”

As portrayed in the film its suspense comes from the mysterious disappearance of the character Amy Dunne and from uncertainty whether her husband, Nick, was involved.

To begin the story is told alternately between Nick and Amy. Nick’s perspective is offered in the present and Amy’s relates to the past via extracts from her diary.

The pair are unreliable narrators as both characters create different accounts of their marriage. The plot thickens when both begin to lack credibility. This begs the question: ‘who should we trust to tell the truth in this story? The Readers Digest magazine described its story as ‘masterful’ and ‘an astute and thought-provoking look into two complex personalities’.

However, in the film, whilst we feel we are following both characters the viewer has not been given all of the information. This adds to the challenge of keeping-up with the story when the flow has already been disrupted by showing events out with their ordinary sequence.

Events include scenes of how they met, with cute flirtations and passionate scenes from their sex life which depict how happy they once made each other. We also see the couple struggling with recession when Nick loses his job as a journalist. He opens a bar with his twin sister, Margo, and partially confides in her about his relationship with his wife.

Gillian was able to use her personal experiences to create well imagined and believable characters. For example, she was made redundant from her job as a writer for the American magazine Entertainment Weekly, and she added a similar incident into Nick’s backstory.

The couple then relocate from New York City to rent a home in his small hometown of North Carthage in Missouri. Amy doesn't adjust to life there and their happy marriage begins to diminish.

Gillian was involved in lots of interviews where she explained her interest in exploring the dynamics of long-term relationships.

She said: “I use the mystery as a through-lane to pull me towards what I'm actually interested in exploring. This disciplines me to not stray too wildly from what I'm most interested in, which is definitely the relationships.

“I liked the idea of a ‘whodunit’ revolving around a marriage. I wanted to write about two people who knew each other so well and were around each other all the time, for good and often bad. They knew how to push each other's buttons but didn't know that the other was dangerous to a degree.”

On the couples 5^th wedding anniversary Amy goes missing. Nick becomes a key suspect for her disappearance. Gillian wanted to use media coverage during crimes as a theme here to highlight that people can be seen as guilty before a trial. In the film feelings of dismay on his part appear amiss and the press take his lack of emotion to mean he is guilty of her murder.

Ben Affleck who plays Nick has had his own real-life media frenzies. When he was in a relationship with Jennifer Lopez he was regularly swamped with paparazzi. 

Director David Fincher who cast Ben said: “He has interesting baggage. In our case it was just too perfect.”

Gone Girl is Fincher’s 10^th film, and it is the 2^nd he has based on a novel adaptation after The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Other dark thrillers he has directed include the big hit Se7en about a serial killer and 2007’s Zodiac based on a real-life Zodiac killer.

He worked with Cean Chaffin who has produced all of his films since 1997’s The Game. Chaffin explained that in Gone Girl the number of takes per scene averaged 50. With Affleck Cean Chaffin explained that so many shots helped to show his character’s resentment.

Fincher is known for multiple takes on set but he still attracts actors. His last three films all had Oscar nominations for the leads Rooney Mara in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network and Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Come the next Oscars there are hopes for Affleck and Pike to scoop some awards for their acting.

For the role of Amy, actresses Charlize Theron, Natalie Portman and Emily Blunt were all contenders. However, Fincher liked the idea of casting someone less well-known and cast British actress Rosamund Pike.

Pike was Fincher’s greatest gift for this movie. First recognised in 2002 as double agent Miranda Frost in Die Another Day, she was Pierce Brosnan’s final bond girl. She has since had parts in a large number of low-key films. Ones that stand out include her parts in 2010’s Made in Dagenham and 2009’s An Education, where she was nominated for supporting actress awards.

In 2011 she played Kate in Johnny English Reborn and in 2012 as Queen Andromeda in Wrath of the Titans. But now at age 35 she has carried this big blockbuster movie that could quite possibly see her achieve awards for her lead role.

Pike intrigued audiences with her amazing ability to delve into deep into the human psyche and capture the unsettling scenes of Amy so precisely. Amy is psychologically troubled perhaps by the couple’s financial problems, the gradual breakdown of their marriage and her husband’s betrayal. She seems lonely as her husband goes out and she is left to self-destruct. Her intimate diary entry monologues become gradually more haunting as she reads them in the same chilling monotone.

With 90% audience likes on Rotten Tomatoes and favourable views on similar film review sites it would appear that Writer Gillian Flynn and Director David Fincher made the perfect match for this novel’s adaptation. Murder mystery genres can lure audiences and when they work they make for exciting viewing. Gone Girl is certainly nothing short of an edge-of-your-seat thriller.

Scenes within are mentally disturbing with blood and violence, and because they are unsettling they are likely to resonate in the mind once the film ends. Unfortunately Fincher also changed Flynn’s ending to a slightly outlandish and flawed conclusion, but admittedly a more Hollywood one. Whilst it’s an ambitious 2hr 25 minutes long there is perhaps a slight loss of momentum in the film mid-way through, but it is still worth watching.

*** 

6.5/10