Gone Girl: More Twists Than A Bill Paxton Helen Hunt Movie

I saw this movie about a week ago and I've been trying to come up with a good explanation of the movie for my dear four readers out there because it is a pressing issue and you truly NEED to know.  First of all, Gone Girl is brilliant.  Yes.  It is brilliant.  I don't care that it's based off a popular book... it's not fucking Twilight so those of you hesitant to see the movie because you think it's another popular book adaptation like vampires going all crappy Shakespeare or a bunch of kids put together on an island where they have to kill each other in a maze or only one can come out a winner crowned by Donald Sutherland... lock that up now.  This movie is brilliant.  I haven't read the book, but in speaking with a few that have say that it's probably the most faithful adaptation one could ask for.

Ben Affleck... is brilliant.  Take all of those preconceived Reindeer Games and Jersey Girl and Daredevil and Bounce and Changing Lanes Affleck notions out of your head.  They're gone.  This is Good Will Hunting affleck.  This is the Affleck that shows us how he actually became a star to begin with.  He's able to do more in this movie with one look than he did in the entirety of Pearl Harbor, so take that shit out of your brain and shove it up Matt Damon right now.  He's brilliant.

Rosamund Pike... is brilliant.  Is my adjective use of brilliant getting a little too overused?  I don't care.  She was great.  She's one of those actors that you've seen sporadically around for the last fifteen or so years.  She was randomly in a Pierce Brosnan Bond movie a long time ago.  She was just in the wonderful World's End with Simon Pegg last year.  She's an actress who has never really been given that one shot to shine.  Until now.  And I don't want to give anything away... spoiler free I promise... but she plays the character with uncompromising beauty.  I don't mean that in a physical way, either.  Her performance of a very emotionally complex woman is outstanding.  It's bone-chilling really.

David Fincher is... yeah, I know, brilliant.  Whatever.  He's always great.  He picks and chooses his movies perfectly now.  And while most of his movies are all filmed with those dark blues and grey hues, no one movie is the same.  While Gone Girl may have the look of The Social Network and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and Panic Room and The Game and Fight Club... it has an entirely different feel, just as each of the aforementioned movies do.  Fincher is at the top of his game now.  He was able to take a source material, an unpleasantly dark source material, and make something exhilarating to watch.  He's able to make a movie that feels like we're reading a novel.  One of the biggest ploys of the book is that of the unreliable narrator.  It switches perspectives throughout the film so that you're not getting only one side of the story.  This is a little more difficult to do in film.  But Fincher is able to do it smoothly and with ease.  He's able to give one perspective on a character who we begin to like, then hate.  Then another character will come in and we love this person.  Then hate this person.  Then we like the other person again.  Then we hate the other person again.  The flip-flopping of the narrator's perspective lends to so many twists and turns that it's almost hard to keep track.  And they're not done for the sake of fooling the audience.  They're done very organically in order to produce a very compelling story told in a new way.

Gone Girl is a movie that has stuck with me for a good while.  It has a strange cast.  Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry are in the movie.  Perry is used for a bit of comic relief, but not in the Madearrr way we're all used to.  Harris, on the other hand, isn't used for his comedic chops at all.  He's a sinister little prick who everyone will despise and he does it with the acting prowess that this has been his M.O. as an actor forever.  Even Affleck and Pike are strange in this movie.  In the beginning when we're shown how they first met and got together... the acting felt almost fake.  It definitely felt forced and scripted and I didn't believe most of it.  I was immediately unsure of how I would feel about these two in the movie because I already thought they were over-acting.  However, this was the point.  Once the movie dives into the guts of its story and its twists, the acting... changes.  True colors come out.  We see the facade that was easily detectable in the two actors.  They acted like bad actors in order to portray the falseness of their relationship.  That, I believe, is true acting.  It has blown me away.

So, far this is probably the best movie I've seen this year.  There are a few others that I thoroughly enjoyed, but none has stuck with me this much and this long.  As soon as it was over I wanted to see it again.  Shit, I kind of even want to read the book now.  Now, I can't tell you that it's going to be your specific cup of tea because the story truly is, for lack of a better phrase, fucked up.  It's a wildly depressing sight watching this unfold, but it's the intrigue and the mystery that holds your attention.  It is dark and gruesome and an absolute blast to watch.

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