Movie Review: Gone Girl (English)
Gone Girl, an adaptation of Gillian Flynn's 2012 novel of the same name, is what happens when love goes wrong, and David Fincher tremendously succeeds in bringing alive the dark, disturbing psychological overtones, devouring the case of a thoroughly dysfunctional marriage with gusto. The enigmatic line "What are you thinking? How are you feeling? Who are you? What have we done to each other? What will we do?", at the start and the end of the movie (as was the case with the book) pretty much sums it all up.
The story abounds in elaborate misdirections, plot reversals and switchbacks, all of which make Gone Girl a lot more interesting from a narrative standpoint. It plays so many he-said-she-said mind games that after a point it becomes real hard to take anything at face value. Neither the characters for that matter. It's deception and manipulation at its best.
Nick is a charmer, albeit a bit dim-witted, and Amy is the "Amazing Amy", but as his lawyer Tanner Bolt says at one point, "You two are the most fucked-up people I have ever met". With Flynn herself writing out the screenplay, the movie rushes through Amy's diary to dwell on her disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary and the media circus that ensues from then on. But are they really what they are? Or are they putting up appearances just to satisfy each other? Crumbling marriages in the face of infidelity and financial strain is nothing new, but Gone Girl has no space for emotions; it's incisive and almost has a cruel, ice-cold touch to the proceedings.
And by the end I couldn't help but wonder if the entire thing was an intricate attention-seeking act that could help them get on with their lives (given that both of them lost their high-profile jobs due to recession)! The storyline tends to slip into sheer levels of ridiculousness at times, but with David Fincher's brilliant execution and uniformly compelling performances from the ensemble cast, Gone Girl is that almost perfect twisty mystery, while giving a whole new meaning to the word "victim"!
Nick is a charmer, albeit a bit dim-witted, and Amy is the "Amazing Amy", but as his lawyer Tanner Bolt says at one point, "You two are the most fucked-up people I have ever met". With Flynn herself writing out the screenplay, the movie rushes through Amy's diary to dwell on her disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary and the media circus that ensues from then on. But are they really what they are? Or are they putting up appearances just to satisfy each other? Crumbling marriages in the face of infidelity and financial strain is nothing new, but Gone Girl has no space for emotions; it's incisive and almost has a cruel, ice-cold touch to the proceedings.
And by the end I couldn't help but wonder if the entire thing was an intricate attention-seeking act that could help them get on with their lives (given that both of them lost their high-profile jobs due to recession)! The storyline tends to slip into sheer levels of ridiculousness at times, but with David Fincher's brilliant execution and uniformly compelling performances from the ensemble cast, Gone Girl is that almost perfect twisty mystery, while giving a whole new meaning to the word "victim"!
Comments
Post a Comment