Nerds That Geek Movie Review: ‘Gone Girl’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

I love it when a motion picture does a perfect job of blending reality and fantasy. It's rare, but it happens and when it does it is nothing short of magical when we are transported to a world where the impossible happens but holy crap, does it feel like something you've experienced before in your day to day life. 

Recently I had the pleasure of watching a film that fits that mold, one that I already knew would be top notch quality wise, courtesy of its director, David Fincher, who to me always delivers an amazing movie every single time he steps behind the camera. But this one...this one was special because of how cerebral it turned out to be and the film in question is Gone Girl.

For those who have not seen this film yet, it is about a man named Nick Dunne and how his marriage is completely on the rocks. He's miserable in every sense of the word so imagine his surprise when his wife goes missing. But as the days progress and the hunt for his wife Amy is on, the national spotlight begins to shine bright on Nick and all of his social quirks and suddenly everyone is beginning to wonder if Amy has actually gone missing...or if Nick has murdered his darling wife

---

So obviously, I've made mention of the fact that this movie blends together our world with the fictional one that features Nick Dunne and it accomplishes this by taking us right into a situation where the court of public opinion passes judgment on Nick before the facts come into play and well...it's fascinating to watch how opinion and eventually the angry vitriol directed at Nick evolves because people don’t like that he isn't camera ready, and because the talking heads on television make sure to pass judgment as soon as their own personal opinion is formed, regardless of the truth or due process for that matter.

We get plenty of that last situation in this motion picture, courtesy of a silver screen parody of the always angry Nancy Grace and we see the impact of such behavior by way of snippets of Nick out and about in the world hearing what others think of him and his situation. But rather than simply be a satire of the world of viral public opinion, the story goes above and beyond, giving us some commentary on what it means to be famous in this day and age danger of putting the wrong kind of people in the spotlight. And all of that is explored in Amy’s wild storyline, where her insanity is on full display. I mean, come on...she fakes her own death in this film to make sure that Nick will end up on death row. 

In the end however, this is simply a fascinating film that presents us with some sad characters as well. Nick is well...an everyday Joe who will never be anything more than that and Amy is a psychotic and angry little lady who lives in the shadows of her well-regarded family and is desperate to be seen as something more in life. Which means that kudos are in order to Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike for bringing these jackasses to life and kudos to David Fincher for putting together a film that I am going to have to watch many times over to fully appreciate the nuances and themes that this brilliant film is loaded to the gills with. See this one if you haven't, it's a fine satire of American life, the desire of some to be in the limelight...and the fact that nothing is ever quite what it seems.

---