External Ratings (as of posting)
IMDB – 8.5/10 from 78,617 users
MetaCritic – 79/100 on 49 critics, 8.1/10 on 355 users
Audience and Scoring:
Ross – 9/10
Weber – 9/10
Weber
First, a little meta commentary. Holy what in the what, amazing marketing / trailer packs for this movie. Part of the high rating is entirely due to how well marketed the film was overall. The trailers give away very little. As someone who had his ears plugged and eyes closed for the new Interstellar trailer that preceded the film, this was just overall a good job. Side note: you may not want to see this one if you and the SO are having troubles. It’s not depicting of any kind of normal relationship. I add that because one couple in particular left the theater looking like they never wanted to say much to the other ever again. But I digress.
Moving along. This is, if you couldn’t tell from that first paragraph, a difficult movie not to spoil. The directing pedigree was something I’m honestly glad I didn’t pay attention to beforehand. I may have had a different preconception of things, a different anticipation of events, had I know that David Fincher, of Fight Club, Se7en, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button fame, was helming this thing. The acting on all fronts was impeccable. As in I believe in Ben Affleck playing not completely bombing Bruce Wayne, now. As long as he doesn’t do that trademark smirk. Which is also pointed out in this movie. I don’t think I breathed correctly for the last, oh, half of this thing. There are also striking moments of humor during the descent into morbidity – it does get very, very dark – coming from the movie’s Nancy Grace (couched in some name I don’t recall, because hey, it might as well actually be Nancy Grace footage). Giggling ensued as she rapidly waffled on the issue and spewed awful and realistic Fox News vitriol every time she was on screen. Everyone acted the hell out of their parts, especially the coffee-swilling detective played by Kim Dickens.
The end is truly creepy. Of the “this is how you scare your horny teenage kids / college goers” variety. Or your grown-ass-wo/man variety. It’s incredibly chilling in its potential for realism, especially when you’ve personally witnessed similar relationships. And that’s where this one brings it home amidst the spectacle. Kids, Weber says don’t stay with someone because you like who you make yourself become for them. Well, you know, if that person is homicidal or a sociopath or something.
TL;DR - This one is very spoiler free, on purpose. The movie deserves it. Go see it if you like thrillers and don’t suspect violence of your SO. It’s a solid flim.
Ross
So Ben Affleck is a pretty good actor, I guess. So is Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris and everyone else in this movie. This film, walking the fine three sided line between crazy, realistic, and meta as all hell, is a step above it’s own advertising. We all know the premise, lady goes missing, potentially innocent husband is grilled by media, society and the police, and then the rest happens. Spoilers will come, believe you me, but I’m going to try to get through all this other stuff first.
David Fincher does an admirable job translating the best-selling novel to film. His direction is spot on, highlighting the grim world that Affleck and others inhabit, all while ensuring that you see clearly through each character’s intentions. There are no, “mistakes” in this movie from a directorial and design standpoint. Everyone is as they should be, aging as the story progresses, gaining weight, losing focus on different parts of their lives. It is beautifully shot and magnificently framed at every turn.
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross prove once again that a soundtrack doesn’t need to be a big booming score(not hating on Hans Zimmer, just sayin’), instead it can be a bleak, droning soundscape that is less there to draw attention, and more there to create tension at the perfect moments, and rip away any curtains in others. It isn’t a soundtrack I would buy(because I don’t particularly feel like walking around in a modern-era midwestern family nightmare)but it certainly achieves it’s goals.
The part I’ve been waiting for, where I can tell you about the joyous insanity that is Gone Girl. Amy Dunne is simultaneously the most batshit crazy and perfectly sane person in this movie. She is dragged from her aspirations in New York by her loving Missourian husband to the deep, boring hole that is North Carthage, to stand beside him as he tends to his dying mother. Eventually, mom dies and Nick(Affleck himself) uses her trustfund money to start a bar(aptly called, “The Bar”) and proceeds to cheat on her with one of his creative writing students. So is she justified in leaving him? Yes. Is she also justified in setting up a nationwide manhunt and framing him for her dissappearance/potential murder? Not so much.This girl is a genius, mind you, so she plans all of this to the letter. It’s poetic really, she sets him up nice and proper. She reads her plans to the audience with such clear-cut conviction that it almost makes you question the absurdity of her strategy. Can she really get away with it? Is she really wrong in her decision to ruin him after he has taken so much from her?
All in all, yes. Everyone in this movie does bad. The fact that we end up with a frightening American family picture(her pregnant, him being held somewhat hostage by the pregnancy and the sheer weight of their story) is the greatest punishment for them all. The totally-not-Nancy-Grace character breaking the story of her pregnancy helps add to the brutality of their life. Its never going to be just good ol’ midwestern boring again.
TL;DR - Go see this movie. It's good, everyone involved does a stellar job and it's gripping from start to finish.