"Gone Girl" - A Modern Marriage Fable

The date movie of the year is not a cute boy-meets-girl story, but a creepy thriller about a missing wife and her suspicious husband.  "Gone Girl" is required viewing for any married couples or any couples thinking about marriage because it presents two sides to the struggles and broken dreams that all couples encounter.  Based on the best-selling novel by Gillian Flynn, and directed by David Fincher, "Gone Girl" is a faithful - almost literal - adaptation sure to satisfy readers and surprise the uninitiated.

"Gone Girl" is one of the most perfectly cast movies in recent years.  Ben Affleck stars as Nick Dunne, the suspect-husband who is both loved and loathed.  His character's journey mirrors the actor's:  he's up, he's down, he's a hero, he's a villain.  Is he sincere?  Is he a bullshit artist?  He's Ben Affleck!

On the day of their fifth wedding anniversary, Nick's wife Amy disappears.  The story is told through both Nick's perspective, and through the diary narration of Amy.  Amy is played by the British actress Rosamund Pike, who gives a multi-tiered performance that overshadows everyone around her.  She IS "Gone Girl" and it's great to see this actress finally get a substantive role.  Previously, her talents have been wasted as a Bond girl (in one of the worst entries "Die Another Day"), the token girl in "The World's End," and even as the one-and-done Jack Reacher girl opposite Tom Cruise.  This is an actress everyone will be talking about, and it's safe to say she will no longer be unknown.

Like the novel, the movie is full of twists upon twists, so I almost feel as I've said too much already.  Even the title says too much.  Of course, if you haven't read the book then you're in for a provocative ride that will give couples plenty to discuss afterward.  If you've already read the novel, then you won't find anything new or earth-shattering in the movie.  In a rare Hollywood decision, the screenplay was adapted by the original novelist, so all aspects of plot, theme, and character were preserved.

Is this a bad thing?  As someone who's read the book, I felt a little bored with it all.  I think some opportunities were missed to expand the context off the page and go deeper into the societal conflicts that are hinted at in the novel.  Nick and Amy start off in New York, but when the Recession renders both of them jobless, they are forced to move back to Nick's home in Missouri.  In the film the small town middle-class life plays a tiny background part, never directly affecting the couple's marriage.

But what the movie lacks in scale, it compensates for with amazing acting talent.  In addition to the leads, "Gone Girl" features two standout performances by unfamiliar faces.  Kim Dickens plays the savvy Detective Boney.  Even though she's a small town cop, she's the moral center of the story.  She's funny and tough and absolutely perfect.  Carrie Coon is the other star-in-the-making.  She plays Nick's sister Margo, who's both loving and stern.  In many ways these two actresses portray the only real adult characters in the movie. Surrounded by childish, inexplicable behavior, they are the symbolic parents and keepers of the loony bin.  It's a big responsibility, and these sharp talents shine bright.

"Gone Girl" is a fictitious fable about marriage.  It's about how couples try to control and change one another.  How people evolve based on what they believe their partner wants or thinks.  The original novel told it all brilliantly.  The movie pretty much does the same exact thing, but loses some of the book's subtext by trying to be too faithful.  The movie is twenty minutes too long, and could have said way more with less.