She's 'Gone'

What to do when your marriage is crumbling beneath you?  Do you try and mend the pieces?  Or, do you realize it's so far gone that leaving ends up being your best option?  For Amy Elliot Dunne, her emotional turmoil leaves her with seemingly one option.  And it's not quite option B.

Gone Girl opens with Amy (Rosamund Pike) lying in bed, her husband Nick (Ben Affleck) running his hands through her hair. His voiceover asks 'what's going on inside your head. What would it look like if I cracked it open?' Cut to July 5th when Nick discovers his wife gone, most likely kidnapped. So begins a police investigation, magnetized by intense media scrutiny.  Growing up, Amy was the young subject of her mom's kids book series 'Amazing Amy.'  Beloved by many, Amy's disappearance quickly make national news as hordes of volunteers gather in search of a missions person they feel they know so well.  The film mostly unfolds through voiceover as Amy reads entries from her diary.  It is important that this is Nick's story as told by his wife.  

Methodically paced, Gone Girl unravels its plot piece-by-piece, allowing the audience time to grasp the gravity of each situation and process new information.  Gillian Flynn, who adapted her own novel, wrote a tense domestic thriller with well drawn characters. Ben Affleck plays the brooding and 'woe is me' husband. Never an actor to show much range or charisma, his stale melancholia works in his favor this time (and something that could work to make him a fairly successful Batman). Nick isn't always like-able and Affleck's monotonous expressions play up this point. Playing the sympathetic side, Rosamund Pike sweetly embodies the diligently joyful wife, who can make you feel for her.  Though Pike's refusal to completely be the emotional victim creates a strong female character and makes for a genuinely intriguing arc.  

Once Amy's kidnapping is reported, several strong and entertaining supporting characters arrive on the scene.  The two (somewhat cliched) detectives, Amy's heartbroken parents, Nick's sister Margo (Carrie Coon), who provides Nick with the emotional and intellectual maturity he desperately needs. Yet, most important is an old boyfriend of Amy's, Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris).  While the character screams Barney Stinson (Desi is a bit of a wealthy playboy) the role is pivotal and frighteningly moves the film in an exciting and unnerving direction. 

While the cast is solid and the performances well grounded, the real star is the script and its execution. David Fincher handles the complex material with ease.  In a story with a lot of moving parts and deceitful and duplicitous characters that's not a simple task. It helps, though, that his source material is expertly crafted. Beautiful cinematography, an understated and tense score (by Trent Resnor), and a restrained editing style add to the atmosphere of the film. Gone Girl is not your typical crime drama. Your allegiances will change and there's a chance, a really good one, that you're gonna want to hurl your soda at the screen once it's over. However, pause for a moment and let the film sink in during the end credits. Let it continue to challenge you along with your conceived perceptions about you and others in your life.  We're all not perfect and sometimes, unfair or lucky it may seem, life gives you a free pass.