A movie where I can watch Ben Affleck get fucked over repeatedly? I'm sold!
Well, I know I sound like a broken record, but 2014 has been a legendary year for movies in my eyes. Just when I thought this year couldn't get any better, here comes David Fincher with another one of his opuses! I've got to say, this movie surpassed my expectations (which were low because of Ben Affleck) and is right up there with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes as one of the best films I've seen this year! Yeah, it's that good! Fincher has done it again!
We open with a shot of Amy Dunne (played by Rosamund Pike) laying on Ben Affleck's chest, we then hear a narration of Ben Affleck doing his best Patrick Bateman impersonation as he's trying to figure out what his wife is thinking. We immediately get a sense that his marriage is falling apart, and that things can't get any worse for him. We then cut to a scene at the bar where Nick Dunne (Affleck's character) decides to have a drink and play some Life with his twin sister Margo. We learn through exposition that this day is Nick and Amy's 5th wedding anniversary, and Nick couldn't look or act more miserably.
Nick and Margo are just shooting the shit at the bar, when suddenly a neighbour calls Nick at the bar (that is owned by Amy) and tells him that his cat is outside. Nick immediately rushes over to take care of the situation, and realized that the front door was left open. He calls for Amy whom he thinks is home, but to no answer. He looks around the house, and sees his glass table shattered on the floor, and signs of a struggle all over the home. He then realizes his wife is missing, and looks like he couldn't give two shits about it. He's the suspect, isn't he? He's gotta be!
That's what the media is going to make everyone in this movie think... Nick is the culprit, guilty of killing his wife before it's even confirmed that she's dead. I guess this is a segue into what I love about this movie, right? Well, first off, I love the social commentary that's ripe throughout this film! Fincher has always had a knack for turning a mirror on society and showing them how pathetic they look, and this movie is no exception. Throughout Gone Girl, we see members of the media rip Nick apart and draw their own conclusions before any facts are in. They pick apart a picture of him smiling (because he can't just be trying to put on a positive face), they condemn him for taking a selfie with a search volunteer (yeah, he can't be thankful, right?), and they even imply that there's some incest going on between him and Margo! All this while turning this missing woman's case into a national news story, and making Nick the most hated man in America. Don't you just love mass media? Fuck!
This kind of commentary is very relatable to what's going on in the real world with this Ebola shit. Now I mean no disrespect to anyone who has been affected by that disease, but fuck man! The media is just blowing it up! Just like they blow everything else out of proportion, so they can keep you scared, keep you in line, and keep their advertisers happy. Fuck them! Wars have killed more people than ebola has! But they won't mention that, right? Of course not, it doesn't suit their interests! Ugh...
So I'm going to move on before I get carried away with my hatred for the media. So... what else did I love about this movie? Well, the story is great! The plot has so many twists and turns (another staple of Fincher movies), and while they are necessary to drive the story, many of these twists will shock the living hell out of you and change your whole perception of where the film is going. When my girlfriend and I saw this movie, there were quite a few times where we looked at each other and said...
Yeah, it was like that, and that's another high point of this movie! It brilliantly keeps you guessing and keeps you engaged throughout, which is saying something given that this film is 2 hours and 30 minutes long. The movie also tells its story in a non-linear fashion (a-la Pulp Fiction or Batman Begins), as we get flashbacks of the relationship between Nick and Amy from time to time. This gives the audience a chance to become invested in these characters, and to try to pinpoint the exact moment where the relationship began to fall apart. These flashbacks are so seamlessly intertwined with the main plot that you won't even notice the time jumps, and that is the result of the brilliant direction this movie has!
I'm so good with my segues, aren't I? Anyways, this goes without saying, but David Fincher has once again delivered us a twisted mindfuck of a film! The premise of someone's wife being kidnapped has been done a million times by a million other directors, but Fincher tells this story in such a bold unique way that it feels new! Every scene takes us to the next, every flashback is important, every cut is where it needs to be, every twist and turn is in the exact right place, the pacing is pitch perfect... fuck, everything Fincher did with this movie was masterful! Watching him make this must've been like watching him conduct a symphony, it was that great! Oscar worthy, perhaps? Well, we'll wait and see for that... But seriously, anyone who can make squeeze a great performance out of Ben Affleck deserves some kind of award, right?
Onto the acting... and holy shit! The acting in this movie is fan-fucking-tastic! Incase you haven't noticed, I'm not the biggest fan of Ben Affleck (I know, shocking, right? Hope you were sitting when you read that), and I was one of the many people who completely snapped when he was announced as the next Batman. But his performance in this movie has officially won me over! He plays the complex role of Nick Dunne beautifully, and you can tell that playing a man who has been ripped apart by the media and the public was pretty easy for him (maybe that was why he was chosen for the role). Will his great performance stop me from making fun of him? Nope... Sorry, but that's just too much fun!
Affleck's acting counterpart Rosamund Pike stole the show in this movie. The character of Amy Dunne is just... fucking nuts! As you get to know her character, you feel less and less sympathy for her, to the point where you just wish she would fucking get offed by someone, anyone! Pike's Oscar worthy performance here brilliantly portrays Amy's slow descent into madness, and just shows what lengths that a sociopathic witch can go to if you piss her off! Seriously, Amy was dead set on being a conniving, backstabbing bitch throughout this whole movie. It was almost gut-wrenching to watch what she would do to people!
Bitches be cray cray!
As for the supporting cast, well... Neil Patrick Harris was downright creepy in this movie. I won't give away too much, but he was a crazy obsessive stalker type of person, and it was eerie for me to watch. Mostly because you don't expect the guy who played Barney Stinson to pull off a role like that, but he knocked it out of the park! Tyler Perry's Tyler Perry also did a great job as Nick's lawyer Tanner, a role that seemed custom-made for him. And Carrie Coon was wonderful as Margo, the voice of reason to Nick's roller coaster of a life. So yeah, the acting and characters were all fantastic and well developed. We might see Rosamund Pike holding a golden statue come February! She was that good!
Now the ending of this movie was very disappointing to some people, as it didn't really end on a high note. Now I'm not going to spoil it because I don't want whiny babies bitching at me for ruining the movie, god fucking forbid! Seriously, if you don't want spoilers, then don't go on the internet, simple as that! Fuck! Okay where was I? Oh yeah... So the movie actually ended on a very sour note, and it will leave you feeling very empty. But, then again, that's another staple of Fincher films, as he's not the kind of director who'll uplift his audience (Watch Se7en or The Social Network for proof of that). Fincher's movies are grounded in reality, and reality is a cruel, cruel place. Now I haven't read the book, but from what I've heard, the book ends pretty much the same way. So, I guess Fincher was the perfect man to adapt the novel from page to screen!
To conclude, this is one of the best movies I've seen this year, and in my opinion, it's David Fincher's best movie since Fight Club, and that's saying a lot! The story is awesome, the acting is awesome, the characters are brilliant, the social commentary is great, and the ending, while cruel, is the perfect conclusion to this movie! I don't really have any complaints about this movie I can think about. This movie is Oscar bait for sure, and I would love see Fincher get one, he is WAY too overdue!
This movie gets 5 treasure hunts out of 5 from me! Man 2014 is so awesome!
As usual, troll me in the comments below... Or don't... Not like I give a shit.
- Mad Mike of Metal
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