A Review of Gone Girl

David Fincher takes a stab at the enigmatic femme fatale: Gillian Flynn’s best-seller, Gone Girl.

The story of Gone Girl presents the conflict of a feminist psychopath against a misogynist jerk in what might be the most deranged marriage cinemas have ever seen.

The narrative unfolds in interspersing viewpoints: entries from Amy's diary, from day 1, and Nick's explanation of the weeks following her disappearance. In the opening scene, Gone Girl employs a voice-over flashback narration, the contemporary film-noir device used by the generic anti-hero illusionist, as the camera cuts from the male gaze lingering over a blonde femme fatale character. Immediately introducing us to Amy, to what we believe is the lead protagonist.

When bar owner Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), returns home after a censorious nag with his sister, Margo Dunne (Carrie Coon) he finds himself lost, with the front door open; a glass table upturned and shattered; his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), unaccountably missing on their five year anniversary. When Detective Rhonda Boney arrives at the scene, she doesn't treat it as a missing case, suspiciously a criminality.

Nick is suddenly embedded with pressure from both the police and the media - as well as Amy’s success driven parents - as he gets himself tangled with an array of lies. While Nick’s portrayal becomes progressively deceitful, we start to question ourselves - is he capable of murder?

The two characters rival for the media’s sympathy, lying and manipulating one another in order to survive. This feminist manifesto reveals Amy to be a wealthy, beautiful and intelligent women; she’s the type of girl who flagrantly loves sex, unconventionally drinks bottles of beer and devours burgers — whilst still miraculously maintaining a ‘perfect size 2 figure’.

This perfect portrayal of ‘Amazing Amy’ is later contradicted with her dishonest, mind-controlling behaviour, as she fakes her own death. Disheartened, she plans to frame Nick for her murder, in revenge for his infidelity.

This sinless, pleasurable damage is the toxicity of their relationship, as we watch the pressure snap like an overwound spring.

Lead by a viably successful cast, Gone Girl surges above all with a provoking plot, prodigious pacing and peerless performances in this chauvinistic pulp.