Gone Girl

I haven't seen a movie this suspenseful in a long, a truly long time. It's so terribly suspenseful that after the first line I was ready to rewind the film to the end to see how it would turn out. It blends so many things that I love in movies. Unexpected twists and turns, engaging narration from the main heroine, and... one big game. And the best part is the insightful, even clinical way in which it's filmed. I have no complaints about the cast either. I'm simply and plainly blown away and if anyone asks me for a movie recommendation this year, this one will immediately jump out at me. Anyway, I'm off to buy the book this weekend. 5 stars. (01/21/2015)

So this is the drama that made everyone pee their pants in bliss? It's impersonal, cold, both of them deserve to be slapped. I liked the character of the detective and the sister of the accused the best – there seemed to be some character to them. But otherwise it's like walking through a fog. It might feel nice at first, coming out of the warmth of your home, but as time goes on you realize you can't actually see anything and you feel the same thing all the time. No twist. Nothing to delight you. It's a film about how manipulation, callousness, and emotional apathy win out. Is that a reflection of the US? Europe? The world? When I think about it that way, it's disgusting. But that's about the only emotion the film evoked in me. Otherwise, nothing. A blank void. In the fog. But it's shot with precision, no question. (03/05/2015)

Bitching about Fincher playing it safe is like badmouthing Jagr for his hockey finesse and scoring goals. This narrative, directed with the precision of a neurosurgeon, for whom the camera is the scalpel and the music the anesthetic, precisely doses the marital crisis with a cool detachment, in which the apparent waters of detachment are navigated by actors who have every letter of the script pinned directly to their bodies. Affleck's worldliness with the hallmark of a small-town dweeb works, but Rosamund Pike reigns supreme. Their interaction is something you experience on screen once or twice every three years. It’s a perfectly polished film that knows it and isn't ashamed of it. The first and last shots are divine. (10/09/2014)

Who wouldn't want to open their wife's skull and see what's going on inside it? Best Fincher since 2007. Especially the first half is brilliant. The way in which Fincher managed to elegantly embody two unreliable book narrators into exciting cinematic speech is worthy of (un) academic admiration. Especially since the film does not achieve the stratification and urgency of the book, but it is able to balance it with predatory irony and scathing exaggeration. Criticism of the crises of a troubled society, which is oriented only by reflections and media images, is carried out with ease and without any lameness. I have problems more so with the second half, which is slightly camp, and, especially through the irresistibly psychopathic caricature of the main character, the film makes its work a little easier when it runs from subtle social criticism and attentive satire of a marital crisis to shocking twists. Moreover, in some of the "dark" scenes, it seems as if Ben Affleck (deprived of the opportunity to defend himself with his smile) reaches the limits of his acting. I can't say that Fincher convinces me indefinitely about the meaningfulness of all of the parts of his game, but I admit, without torture, that even taking into account the complexity of the original and all the pitfalls of the material, my initially slightly indifferent attitude transformed into deep recognition. I’d like to watch this Gone Bitch again after some time has passed. (09/30/2014)

When an author adapts his own (so complex) work for the silver screen, it rarely bodes well because there is too much personal involvement. This doesn’t apply to Flynn, who wasn’t afraid of cutting up and changing her "mirror holding, not-so-much-crime-thriller, satirical, cynical bestseller about relationships" to suit the needs of another medium. So she got rid of everything not directly related to the central storyline. Due to this there is drastically less about those two (and so the main snag with the original book, that these two are puppets who behave according to the momentary needs of the story and that they aren’t living characters, becomes much more apparent) and more about the investigation storyline and the influence of the media on public opinion. And so the movie did include Nick’s unfulfilled ambitions as a writer and Amy’s magazine quizzes in everyday practice. Even the diary entries are edited to the bare minimum; it’s simply whittled down to a stump. And as much as this approach didn’t work in the book, the better it works on the movie screen; especially Fincher’s so apt, coolly depersonalized concept which is taken a level higher by the disquieting hypnotic background music from the Reznor/Ross duo. In any case, the most important parts of the book remained. The evolution of the Nick/Amy relationship is cleverly written, like the best horoscopes. I mean in a way that any couple in a long term relationship can recognize themselves in some respect (I’m talking about the first half here). And in this situation you might take it personally, because this creates the impression that "this could happen to you too". If it isn’t happening already... (10/01/2014)