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.

Gone Baby Gone (2007)

While this movie came seven years after Gone in 60 Seconds and seven before Gone Girl, I couldn't have told you which was which. It was high time I saw one of them. I ruled out Gi60S for not being popular enough. Both GBG and GG involve Ben Affleck, but only GBG has him as director, and he seems less of a gamble than David Fincher.

The heroes are a pair of mainstays in Dennis Lehane's novels: Patrick Kenzie (Casey Affleck) and, with less focus, Angie Gennaro (Michelle Monaghan). When a little girl gets kidnapped, her aunt hires the two private eyes, against the recommendation of the police captain (Morgan Freeman). Their main advantage is that Patrick knows almost everybody in the Boston slum, allowing him connections the cops wouldn't have. They still do some work with police detectives (Ed Harris and John Ashton), but with too much disagreement.