Gone Girl (2014)

Previously, I indicated a reluctance to see this movie, primarily because I tend to have trouble liking David Fincher thrillers. But placement on IMDb's top 250 and a Best Actress Oscar nod are nothing I'd sneeze at. This being 149 minutes, I split it across two nights.

Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) is semi-famous for the same reason as Christopher Robin Milne: She inspired a classic children's lit character by the same name. For this reason, many people take notice when she becomes a missing person. We viewers can assume up front that her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), had no part in her disappearance, judging from his surprise at the overturned furniture when he comes home, but others have no such assurance. A lot of circumstantial evidence points to him, and his known behavior isn't utterly winning. The lead detective (Kim Dickens) is pretty lenient toward him, but he and his nearby-living twin, Margo (Carrie Coon, actually nine years Affleck's junior), feel a need to do something before the police decide they have enough cause for a murder charge. And their state of residence, Missouri, practices the death penalty.

Most of the story's progress from the day of Amy's disappearance takes place in a matter of days, but we get a lot of flashbacks, some years back. She and Nick started out with a pretty darn romantic image, but things went sour. For a protagonist, Nick is unusually reprehensible. That said, Amy hardly lives up to her innocent literary image. The film encourages us to keep adjusting our attitudes toward each, as well as toward a few supporting characters, such as Amy's longing ex (Neil Patrick Harris).

I don't want to spoil the mystery, even tho we learn the gist less than halfway in. (There seems to be more than a three-act structure.) I will say that of all Fincher's fiction that I've seen, this is the most credible. And as a result, possibly the scariest. Not least for the element of public opinion, sometimes manipulated by TV personalities and sometimes indirectly by the villain. If there's one widely applicable lesson, it's "Don't let the media decide how you should react to people you know only so much about."

The R rating has less to do with violence than with sex. Prepare for multiple counts of bare breasts and a brief glimpse of Affleck's manhood, plus explicitly sexual dialog with and without swearing. Despite the actors' beauty, this gratuitous content is not played for sexiness like in No Way Out, because there's generally something about the scenario that makes us think, "No, don't do it!" At least it's nowhere near as disgusting as Se7en.

As often happens with Fincher, the ending, in itself, can hardly be called satisfying. But it is intriguing. I can be at once pained and mesmerized from watching someone doing what they really don't want to do, especially with fake cheer (hey, they are actors). If nothing else, I might recommend GG simply for standing out: I'm hard pressed to think of a comparable neo-noir.