Patman

"Gone Girl" may be categorized as being a dramatic mystery, but it's also funny and spot on with its skewering of the media when it comes to sensational missing persons cases.

Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) comes home on his 5th wedding anniversary to find his house disheveled, and his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing. The ensuing plotline twisted and turned, and for me, produced a lot of laughs in spots for both relief and cheeky self-awareness of the situations.

Director David Fincher continues his story-telling mastery, the film is 2.5 hours long, but the pacing and delivery of story bits keeps the film moving without major dull spots. In combining characterization and plot motivations, the story is simply entertaining, without the fidgeting of being a monotonously boring cinematic exercise. The direction is not flashy, the camerawork does not call attention to itself, but services the story, producing a film you never want to look away while watching it.

So, a fine cast, an engaging script, and deft direction make for a solid film.

I give it 3.75 stars, or a grade of A-.

Dr. DVD

Q: Why do all of your movie comments come across like you're auditioning to be a reviewer? This is just a forum. Saw it, liked it, here's what stood out is good enough for us .

Sweet Baby James

It's not good enough for me. I appreciate a well written post, but I guess that's just me.

fumanstan

Saw it last night, enjoyed it quite a bit. I think BambooLounge saying it doesn't exceed expectations feels right for me also; its a good, entertaining and often gripping movie, but it was also exactly what you would expect from Fincher.

I didn't know anything about the book, so everything was pretty much a huge surprise to me. It was a little slow to get going, but once the mystery starts unraveling it had me hooked until maybe the last 10 minutes, where I thought it stumbled along a little with the conclusion. Not that I expected it to wrap up with a nice bow at the end, but the editing seemed a little weird to me as it skipped ahead.

I didn't find Affleck particularly amazing in this, if anything it felt like he was largely playing himself or a caricature of himself during the Bennifer years with the smug grin of his always on display. He wasn't bad, but I feel like he's been better. Pike was fantastic though, especially her transformation throughout the movie. Carrie Coon and Kim Dickens were great, as was Tyler Perry (who actually seems decent in all his serious roles). I could have done with Neil Patrick Harris; I think i've just seen too much of him from Harold and Kumar and How I Met Your Mother to take him seriously in this. Which also brings a question...



Anyway, really entertaining. Had the fun conversation with my fiancee for a while after as to whether she could frame me for her murder

rocket1312

I'm just excited that he graded something higher than a C+/B-. This has got to be good!

In all seriousness though, I appreciate Patman's well written and thought out comments. I wish this place had more of them. Still, he does sometimes come off as though he's talking at us instead of with us.

RoyalTea

Fifteen out of sixteen stars!

Solid Snake

I saw it yesterday. I really liked it but it's also is one of his weakest films. Saying that, it's still better than most shit. Which only says a lot about Fincher's quality. For some reason it reminded me of his Michael Douglas film. In that it gets preposterous but from him it works. All his films can go that way but they seem very grounded at the same time to the point that it could happen and one could believe it. This one and the game go out there in plot.

I almost hoped the film went another way. But at the same time I was entertained by where it went as well. I was surprised by one bloody action Amy did. It was very well done. Very sexual, graphic, and very much like the director.

I had no issues with the pacing. It really went without a lull. The casting was awesome, even Perry was really fucking solid in here.

I can't wait for the Blu-ray.

BambooLounge

Some spoilers of the novel (stuff left out of the film) to answer your question:

redrum

good flick

ben was decent in it, got the job done, his shitty acting skills came out in a few scenes

not sure if i care to watch it again

rosamund pike is pretty damn sexy

OldBoy

what a tensely gripping movie. this is the very definition of a movie that builds and builds as it gets going. it didn't grab me out right at first, but as the movie progressed so did my interests and the tension built so steadily and dramatically that it was simply wonderful by the end.

i had no idea what was going to happen and was glued.

the performances, especially Pike were amazing. just a slowly building, tension filled drama that keeps you guessing till the end.

not Fincher's most captivating, but very well done.

Guru Askew

I use a 7-unit base scoring system with varying genre qualifiers. Add one unit for drama. Subtract 2 for sci-fi and horror. Comedy is neutral with no units added or subtracted.

I liked Gone Girl a lot.

fumanstan

Thanks, that explains a lot!

gp1086

YES!

This is what it's all about folks. This is a movie that reminds me why I love movies. THIS IS A MOVIE! Thoughts on video here:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/ltYi93OOe-Q" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

David Fincher is one of those directors who has never let me down and Gone Girl is no exception. I tried to steer clear of the trailers, knowing anything about the storyline, etc. and I was blown away away. Movie of the year for me and even though I haven't really been too excited about much until now, this changes with Gone Girl. So perfectly executed. GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Strong recommend.

4.5 / 5.0

gryffinmaster

Heavy spoilers!

johnnysd

I would say definitely for supporting actress Carrie Coon, she is terrific.

This is one of those movies I found absolutely compelling for about an hour, but eventually left thinking "meh". Maybe not the complete collapse of War of the Worlds but similar.

RoyalTea

http://www.npr.org/2014/09/25/350948...ure-soundtrack

If you asked me to describe the soundtrack immediately after watching the movie, I don't know what I would say. I barely was paying attention to it. I don't know if that's a good thing or not.

OldBoy

one thing towards the end that bothered me. maybe it's explained in the book, maybe not, but...

Solid Snake

i was thinking the same thing. Visually i liked it. Probably something kept for visual use

Decker

About the film overall : I really liked it. It was just about as good as it could be with its source material. They hit every major book event and even some of the best Amy internal monologue lines -- the Cool Girl bit was my favorite passage in the whole book. Things that were condensed were done so in a very logical way that actually improved the narrative without missing out on anything important.
Perhaps the only edit from the book that made things a little more confused was

Dr. DVD

I do agree with everyone in here that what really kept the movie from being great was stuff that was in the source material. While the book is good, it does start to lose luster towards the end. The best reason to see the movie is for what Fincher brings to the table with his style.

Decker

Two other small but significant changes from the book for non-book readers:

Re: Contents of Go's Shed


Re : Andie

fumanstan

$38 million for the weekend. Not too shabby.

I picked up the book for my fiancee, i might give it a read after she does.

Shannon Nutt

The movie is basically a streamlined version of the novel. Thank god they didn't change the essentials of the conclusion, which most readers hated, but which I loved for the ambiguity.

Ben Affleck is VERY good in this film...Carrie Coon and Rosamund Pike (who reminds me of a young Kathleen Turner, by the way...probably because of WAR OF THE ROSES) will be getting all the kudos from critics (and possibly/probably future award shows), but its Affleck who does all the heavy lifting here. This should put to rest (although probably not) the idea that he's not a good actor.

inri222

Saw it last night and thought it was better than The Social Network & TGWTDT. Nice criticism on the manipulation of public opinion. Definitely top 10 of 2014.

4.5/5

sauce07

This is not exactly what I expected. The movie felt like a made for TV adaption of a novel, everything from the casting to the diary entry voice overs, but done by a complete pro. I noticed that there were very few close ups in the movie and the depth of field was narrow, it seemed like a way of saying that these characters are living in this big world yet are only focus on themselves.

I have a question about the plotting, maybe you book readers can help me figure it out. What was Amy's plan after she faked her death? She takes off with like 10k in cash, shacks up at a vacation spot/meth head trailer park and watches the chaos she caused. What was she going to do next? It seems like her plans changed after Nick got the media on his side, showed that he can play her game too. She cooked up this crazy idea to kill Desi and go home a hero for escaping from her captor. That couldn't be her original plan, too many coincidences, she had to think that her husband was going to be executed.

Also, was there anything in the book about Tanner's private investigators tracking Amy? That seemed like a plot point that was being set up for the third act. The ex-secret service agents track down a couple of pill poppers who get arrested with a bunch of cash and a story about a woman who was hiding out. The pill poppers put two and two together, figure out who she was and try to use it to reduce their sentence. That never happened.