Gone Girl (2014) movie review

This one film has messed with my mind and expectations more than anything else I’ve ever seen.

Gone Girl stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike, and is about them, as a married couple. On the morning of their anniversary, Affleck discovers that his wife, Amy, has gone missing. There was an obvious struggle, but nobody seems to know what happened. The only leads that Affleck has is a series of notes and clues purposefully left for him by his wife for their anniversary. Pretty soon, a search campaign is started for her, massive press coverage (which the film satires flawlessly) and a lot of drama follows as the mystery unravels. A lot of drama. The kind of drama that screws with your mind, your expectations, and your patience. It is one of the most excellently executed mystery stories ever.

One thing you need to know is that Gone Girl is quite a long movie. It’s almost 2 ½ hours long. I know that others have a problem with long movies, but I never did. The good thing is that it keeps itself engaging at all times, so it never feels like filler.

A part of what keeps it intriguing is the characters and the acting. It’s a completely character driven story, and the actors all phenomenal, even unexpectedly so. Ben Affleck’s character is the first suspect in the mystery of Amy’s disappearance, and he spends the movie trying to prove his innocence. Unfortunately for him, Amy, played by Rosamund Pike, the real show stealer of the movie, is a total bat-$hit crazy sociopath that wants to see her husband suffer more than any other human being that’s ever lived on this planet. She has planned out the mystery and has set Affleck up so well that there’d be no way that he’d ever be seen innocent.

Amy isn’t the same kind of psycho that Jake Gyllenhaal was in Nightcrawler. In that movie, you understand why the psycho is as crazily determined at accomplishing his goal that he is. In this movie, you only understand why Amy hates her husband. From then on, you don’t know why the hell the lady didn’t just divorce him. It would have been a lot easier for everyone. Either way, Rosamund Pike’s performance is still fantastic. She may not be as enjoyably crazy as Gyllenhaal’s Nightcrawler performance, but she’s pretty high up there on the psycho scale.

Another actor that I didn’t expect to do so well in this movie was Tyler Perry. He plays the lawyer that Affleck has to hire to help him with the whole ordeal. I’ve heard that Tyler Perry’s previous productions/performances haven’t been to impressive to other people, but if you watch Gone Girl, you will believe that this man can act. He’s funny, and probably one of the more charismatic characters of the movie. The other is Affleck’s sister, played by previously unknown actress Carrie Coon. She’s my favorite character of the movie. She kinda reminds me of my favorite older sister in some ways. I do like it when not every single character is deadly serious and leave no room for humor or personality. It’s more realistic and more engaging if the characters act like actual people. The movie succeeds in this department much more than a lot of drama movies I’ve seen.

Besides the actors, the driving force of the film is the mystery itself. Yes, early on (relatively) the audience does become aware that Amy is alive and that she’s behind her own disappearance and really really hates her husband. So if that is known to the audience, what mystery is there? Well, I can’t discuss it in detail, but it is there. There are twists and turns that make M. Night Shyamalan hate himself. You will be shocked, disturbed, infuriated, and hoping for things to go right for once. As the story progresses, you’ll change your mind on nearly everything you thought you knew about the situation. At first you’ll think someone is guilty or innocent or justified, then there’s a twist that changes everything. You’ll want to pause it to try and gather your thoughts, but the movie is always going to be 5 steps ahead of you no matter what. The truth is, nobody is entirely innocent. The only truly innocent character in the entire darn film is Ben Affleck’s cat.

If you want an even better psychological drama than Nightcrawler, then you need to watch Gone Girl. It’s got an ingeniously executed plot, great acting, and a lot of suspense, aided by the eerie soundtrack. You’ll hate a lot of what happens in it, but that’s what the filmmakers want. If I’d seen this last year, it would have undoubtedly gotten in the Top 5 of 2014. It’s intelligent, it’s engaging, and needs to be seen.

FINAL RATING: 50 / 50

STORY: 5 / 5

ACTING: 5 / 5

CHARACTERS: 5 / 5

DRAMA/SUSPENSE: 5 / 5

MYSTERY: 5 / 5

SOUNDTRACK: 5 / 5

TONE: 5 / 5

ENJOYABILITY: 5 / 5

REWATCH VALUE: 5 / 5

OWNING VALUE: 5 / 5