Note: I have not read the novel that this film is based on, and cannot speak to its quality as an adaptation. Spoilers ahead, beware.
I don't know why David Fincher doesn't get more respect and recognition as an auteur. He's certainly found a niche, and he executes films that fit into that niche extremely well. Psychological thrillers (usually adapted from books) are obviously his strong suit (The Game, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Se7en, Zodiac), and Gone Girl is his latest in this genre where things can go disastrously wrong or incredibly right. I'm happy to say that Gone Girl has a strong tendency towards the latter, and is incredibly well served by Fincher's style as a filmmaker and the outstanding performances by the lead actors.
This cerebral, intense film is deceptively simple on the surface, but reveals tremendous depth once the narrative gets going. We follow the story of Nick, a man whose wife goes missing and is quickly thereafter presumed dead at his hands. A relatively conventional plot, but as the story moves on from Nick's perspective and a few of the many plot twists occur, we realize that this is anything but straight-forward. Gone Girl does the one thing that a film of its genre should: keep the audience guessing. If a person watching a movie like this can predict what's going to happen at the end and what the final twist is, the film fails at its job of surprising the viewer and creating an atmosphere of tension and mystery. Fincher's film accomplishes this task for its two and a half hour running time (which feels much shorter than it is), which is a monumental feat. The thing about Gone Girl I loved the most was the misdirection of the viewer, the film's ability to lead the audience to an all but certain conclusion and then in one or two brief scenes change everything. There were a lot of times throughout this film that I thought that I had figured it out, but I have to admit that even by the time the final scenes rolled around I had no idea how it was going to end. It's this intense form of viewer manipulation that makes Gone Girl such a success as a mystery thriller.
The direction is also stunning. Fincher's use of very dark, eerie, moody colours reminds me of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, and gives Gone Girl a nightmare-like quality that adds to the intensity and creates a mood of despair and fear. With his wife's disappearance and the media tornado that follows Nick around everywhere, his life has literally become a waking nightmare, a living hell. He's followed everywhere, and searches desperately for the evidence that will prove is innocence. But even if he does prove that he didn't kill his wife, she's still missing and his problem continues to exist. Scenes involving Nick tend to take place mostly at night, and all of this on-screen darkness inevitably affects the mood of the film, giving a deep, brooding darkness that fully envelops Nick. Ben Affleck and his huge muscles that will soon be beating the crap out of Superman do a fantastic job of playing this character, as does Rosamund Pike in her role of his wife, who turns out to be both alive and a complete psychopath.
Gone Girl is just a complete film. Every aspect of it is well executed and done right. It's well cast, well written, well directed and absolutely worth seeing. Time will tell how the mystery endures subsequent viewings but the the first time around Gone Girl is quite a ride.
