|FILM| Gone Girl dir. David Fincher

|FILM| Gone Girl

Dir. David Fincher

Screenplay: Gillian Flynn

Released: 3^rd October 2014

Distributed: 20^th Century Fox

Trailer

Review

I must admit, I hadn’t read the book before I’d seen this adaptation and that may affect the review of this film. I’d like to think it adds another insight because I had no idea what the major plot points were or what was going to happen, thankfully nobody spoiled it for me. I have since read the book so I am able to compare the original text to the adaptation, and I can see what has been changed. You can read my review for Gone Girl here.

As ever, the first part of this review is spoiler free and suitable for those that haven’t read the book or seen the film. I’ll let you know when I start to discuss the film in more detail, so that way I won’t spoil the experience for you.

Firstly, the author of the original text wrote the screenplay, and so I believe this is one of the reasons that the film stays quite true to the text. Gillian Flynn has taken, what I considered to be, the best parts of the dialogue and written them into the screenplay. I think this is important for both those that haven’t read the book, and those that have, because I believe it is the reason the characters are strong and what draws the reader and viewer in. If the characters were lacking then the audience wouldn’t be engaged or involved.

In terms of the actors portraying the characters, I felt that Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike did a sensational job. I know I saw the movie first, but after reading the source material that they had to work with, I understand that they made the performance their own but stayed true to the ones on the page. Ben Affleck did a great job of drawing the audience into his character. As you can see in the trailer, his character is a suspect in the disappearance of his wife, and despite this I found him to be quite a likeable character even though he’s a shady one.

I thought that Rosamund Pike’s performance was the stand out role to me, as I believe she had the more complex character to play and she expresses that well on screen. Towards the end of the film in particular, the scenes in which she is involved in are particularly breath taking. I’m very interested to see more from this actress as this was the first performance I have seen from her.

The plot was enticing and engaging, I felt like I was delivered a compelling and full story. The novel is a substantial length, and I appreciate that the film is lengthy also. This way the film can embrace the detailed and intricate plot, without needing to cut out pivotal character and plot building moments. The film covers all of the major plot points, and weaves through the narrative beautifully.

I’m now going to discuss the film in more detail, specifically the ending and this may contain spoilers. Proceed with caution if you don’t want to see anything that may ruin the story for you.

I have got to start by talking about that ending! Wow! I thought Rosamund Pike did a fantastic job in the reveal of manipulative, psychotic, vindictive Amy. She adds an almost mirth like quality to the frankly disturbing character revelation. I saw this particularly in the car journey, with the lists and the explanation of her plan – she is brutally blunt. There were moments that her performance shook me, and I don’t mean in that scene. It was more the build up to that scene, the display for the cameras stunned me, also the creepy smile to Ben Affleck after feeding the police her tale.

It really is a thrilling, dark, gripping film. I was hooked instantly and have watched it several times – plus with DVD commentary. This was one of my favourite films of 2014, and will remain a personal favourite.

Really recommend, especially if you liked the books – and even if you haven’t read them you’ll love this. Fantastic, well executed adaptation.