"I'm the cunt you married. The only time you liked yourself was when you were trying to be someone this cunt might like. I'm not a quitter... I'm that cunt."
Spoilers in this review
If you like your movies mean and raw, you'll feel as though you've hit the jackpot with David Fincher's latest cinematic masterpiece. Based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling, genre-defying novel, Gone Girl is half whodunit procedural and half cynical portrait of a marriage gone terribly wrong.
Gone Girl is expertly cast. Ben Affleck was born to play Nick Dunne--an attractive charmer who is also a douchey cheat of a husband. Rosamund Pike is a cipher as Amy Dunne, Nick's wife. There are different interpretations of Amy, but I considered her to be a sociopath, plain and simple. The inability to empathize and the drive to use other people for whatever her needs are at the moment.
The secondary characters are very strong. Kim Dickens has a plum role as Det. Rhonda Boney, a cop who is on Nick's side at first, but slowly loses faith in him as more "evidence" that he killed his wife mounts up. Tyler Perry works his slick charm as lawyer Tanner Bolt, notorious for defending "wife killers". Neil Patrick Harris plays Desi Collings, Amy's obsessive ex from high school--a spoiled rich boy who "rescues" Amy in her moment of need, only to trap her in a gilded cage of a luxury lakehouse. Things do not end well for Desi, as Amy is not the kind of girl you lock up.
Like so many other films by Fincher, Gone Girl is beautifully shot in cool tones (with the occasional blast of dark red blood) and tightly paced. Fincher isn't afraid to let his movies run long: Gone Girl clocks in at 149 minutes, which is modest compared to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo's 158 minutes and Zodiac's 157 minutes. Yet you never feel that his films drag. He doesn't waste precious minutes, using quick cuts and fades to jump back and forth in time. We see flashbacks of Amy and Nick's sex-fueled and seemingly happy courtship alongside Nick's descent into guilty husband hell as the court of public opinion turns on him. We see Nick coming to horrific realizations as he solves his wife's 5-year anniversary treasure hunt while, not too far away, Det. Boney and Det. Gilpin (Patrick Fugit from Almost Famous, all grown up!) discover the final piece of evidence that damns Nick as the killer. The film moves quickly, but is not convoluted (or maybe that's because I read the book and knew every twist that was coming).
But enough about the technical aspects of the film. Let's address the burning questions about Gone Girl:
Is the movie (and the book) misogynistic?
Well, that all depends on your perspective. On the one hand, Gone Girl plays out like the wet dream of a Men's Rights Activist: it involves a bitchy, controlling woman who lies about rape and abuse in order to control and nearly destroy her husband. Ben Affleck utters a line near the beginning: "I'm so sick of being picked on by women." At the moment he says it, it comes off as the pathetic cry of a white, attractive man who didn't get *everything* he wanted. But as it becomes clearer what kind of woman he's married to, well, you actually start to feel bad for the guy. I mean, he's a run of the mill cheating husband and jerk, but he's married to a highly intelligent nutcase who uses her brains and body for evil. And that trope of the femme fatale is both sexist and (yawn) played out.
And yet...
There's something about this story (it's more blatant in the book, but you hear it loud and clear in Amy's monologue about "the Cool Girl") that gets to the heart of a real problem women face--the pressure to identify themselves in relation to men. Amy Elliott Dunne may be a sociopath, but she most certainly does not let men define her. Or does she? Has she been the "Cool Girl" all along, only to throw off those shackles in the most dramatic and vengeful way possible? Is Gone Girl a warning to a male-dominated society that you can push a woman only so far before she pushes back?
Gone Girl is not a "feminist" film--unless your idea of feminism is a woman cutting a man's throat while he's in the throes of orgasm (which I'm sure is some people's idea of feminism!). But it can only be considered "misogynistic" when compared to the lack of more traditionally heroic roles for women in Hollywood cinema. If we had a much greater diversity of complex, interesting roles for women, Gone Girl's Amy Dunne would just be one of many options for how a female character can be. Also, isn't it kinda nice having a really nasty female anti-hero? We have so many Walter Whites and Don Drapers and Tony Sopranos. Why not have a female character who fuck and kill with the best of the boys?
Is the movie (and book) anti-marriage?
No. It's anti-marriage to psychopaths. While the movie is extremely cynical in regards to Amy and Nick's marriage, anyone who has an iota of respect and love for their partner will not be threatened by this film. More likely, they'll be relieved.
What else is this movie about?
Gone Girl less about women, men, and marriage and more about how the 24 hour news cycle manipulates people's emotions when it comes to current events. It's a film about how readily and easily people buy into stereotypes: the cheating louche of a husband, the pregnant, scared wife...and perhaps most damning of all: the idea that a white, beautiful woman going missing is more important than, say, ebola killing thousands of Africans or a tsunami leveling a city whose name we can't pronounce. Maybe Gillian Flynn is not only a mastermind at creating a tight, tense thriller...but at redirecting our attention to a fictional monster while subtly pointing out that we are the real monsters. Or did I just blow your mind??
Should I see this movie?
Yes. As long as you are ok with hearing a guy call his wife a cunt and seeing that wife murder a man (in the throes of orgasm!). I would not recommend this film for the squeamish, for people who hate women (if you hate women, I recommend these movies instead), or for any romantic couples on the cusp of a breakup. Otherwise, you're in for a nasty, acidic little treat that you'll be thinking about days later.
4.5 out of 5 stars
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