When the disappearance of a man’s wife becomes the focus of an intense media circus, he finds himself in the spotlight when it is suspected he may not be innocent.
It all begins rather cornily; a sometimes hapless side effect of book-to-film adaptations, especially when the adapted script is also written by the original author (Gillian Flynn). While novel dialogue may play fine in our heads, it can sound silly onscreen. Both director David Fincher (Se7en, Zodiac) and lead actor Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone, The Town) have directed films of the same genre to a far better degree.
I love detective stories, always have, ever since I was a little kid inspecting nooks and crannies with a toy magnifying glass. In mystery movies, if there’s more than one close-up of a cat relaxing in the house, she’s bumped up to a prime suspect in my books. This is Fincher’s 6th adaptation, 4th murder mystery, and first on my least favourites list. Fincher’s Zodiac lured me in to an obsession of solving a serial murder case. I spent hours researching after the film, curious to hear different theories. Se7en is a genre-defining piece: I often think of its gritty celluloid, encapsulating a dank city as if viewed through a tired veteran cop’s eyes. Fincher has a cinematographer’s vision – he’s like a human light meter. (One day wile shooting Gone Girl, Affleck changed the lens setting on a camera to an almost indiscernible amount, betting a crewmember that Fincher wouldn’t notice. “But goddammit if he didn’t say, ‘Why does the camera look a little dim?’” said Affleck afterwards. Despite this, Gone Girl showcased some digital camera flaws that verged on amateur.)
People don’t particularly like Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) in real life, nor do they particularly like her husband Nick Dunne (Affleck). When under the spotlight, people judge his each and every reaction: nothing satisfies the public more than gossiping over whether or not the husband did it. Interesting that Affleck researched a series of other men who were accused of killing their wives, because it looked as though very little effort went into his performance at all – though admittedly, his character is described in such a way that he is more relieved by his wife’s disappearance than concerned. He simply doesn’t look stressed enough, throughout the whole film.
Amy’s diary acts as a guide, helping to traverse past and present. Their past shows a blossoming relationship: it was great, they hit some road bumps, lost their jobs, so their marriage is tested. Exciting sex turns to pathetic routine. As Amy was a semi-celebrity, there are a number of cult followers from her past that can be investigated. Clues unravel – a large sum of items accrued on a credit card that are nowhere to be seen, higher life insurance shortly before her disappearance, a pregnancy he claims he was unaware of. Rather than waiting for a final climactic scene to solve the case and reveal the bad guys – this film deals with that half-way through, with the plot then taking a completely different turn.
All in all, it seems very long, as novels can be. I found myself judging each character just as the public would when watching the nightly news concerning the case. If you can’t sympathize with at least one of the leads, you barely care if they’re suspect, or victim. If you loved the book, you may very well love the film – but in the end, I felt like the victim of the most heinous crime imaginable – one of my favourite directors making a film I can’t rave about.
Gone Girl is in cinemas across Australia now.
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