Gone Girl

Gone Girl (Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry) – I was expecting so much more.  With all the hype, the great box office, and the incredible word-of-mouth surrounding the book by Gilliam Flynn, I expected Gone Girl to be the best psychological crime drama of the decade.  Instead, I saw a well-produced, beautifully photographed retread of a femme fatale film from exceptional director David Fincher.

 

Retread, you ask?  Yes.  I have seen this movie before … several times. Fatal AttractionBasic Instinct, To Die For, Malice, and Body Heat all feature the evil, mad, calculating she-devil.  Gone Girl is just the latest version. To her credit, Rosamund Pike (Jack Reacher, Barney’s Version, An Education, Pride & Prejudice) holds up the tradition set by Nicole Kidman, Kathleen Turner, Glenn Close and the all-time champ, Sharon Stone.

 

Ben Affleck is, as usual, just passable as Nick, the flawed husband whose wife, Amy (Pike), suddenly disappears under questionable circumstances.  What appears to be a seemingly wonderful marriage is revealed as anything but as the layers are peeled back during the investigation.  Did he do it?  Is he being set up?  Where’s the body?  What is the motive?  Who is the mysterious ex-boyfriend who shows up briefly and then disappears?

 

Those are the trite, “it’s been done before” plot elements that Fincher explores over the next 150 minutes; yes, two-and-a-half hours.  To his credit, the director of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, The Game, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (nominated for Oscars for the latter two) manages to create enough tension for the audience.  But that is probably more attributable to the Flynn’s book than to great moviemaking.

 

The rest of the casting is questionable, too.  Neil Patrick Harris plays Amy’s rich, obsessed ex-boyfriend.  That is particularly strange casting.  No matter how hard he tries, Harris is stuck with his TV personalities – Barney on How I Met Your Mother or Doogie Houser, MD – or maybe his song-and-dance Broadway and awards-show persona.  He simply is not believable in his creepy playboy part here.  Neither is Tyler Perry, who plays the high profile, publicity-seeking attorney Nick hires despite having no money.  And the cable TV motor-mouth sensationalist played by Missi Pyle is a total Nancy Grace rip-off.

 

I am told that the movie sticks very close to the book but, typically, it doesn’t have the layers. I have the feeling that the layers are what would have made this a much better movie.   If this film hadn’t been #1 at the box office in its first two weeks, I would tell you to skip it and read the book. Instead, I will just warn you not to expect too much from this movie.  You should go just to see if you are right about how it will end.

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