YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU’VE GOT ‘TIL IT’S GONE GIRL.
When his wife (Rosamund Pike) disappears in what looks like a kidnapping, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is a suspect and a subsequent five-year anniversary treasure hunt turns into a mix of incriminating clues and confusing question marks. Gillian Flynn does an excellent job adapting her page-turner, retaining the tension, sense of humor and provocative satire of marriage. For David Fincher, this is a companion piece to The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) with a similar dark color pattern and eeriness, and fascinating gender games. Affleck and Pike are perfect in their roles as the hapless Nick and “Amazing” Amy, the latter a complex piece of work; Tyler Perry is also fun to watch as Nick’s attorney.
2014-U.S. 149 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Reese Witherspoon, Ceán Chaffin, Joshua Donen, Arnon Milchan. Directed by David Fincher. Screenplay, Novel: Gillian Flynn. Cinematography: Jeff Cronenweth. Music: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross. Cast: Ben Affleck (Nick Dunne), Rosamund Pike (Amy Dunne), Neil Patrick Harris (Desi Collings), Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens… Patrick Fugit, Sela Ward.
Trivia: Jessica Chastain was reportedly considered for the part of Amy.
Last word: “Ben is extremely bright and he’s been through situations that are very similar to this, and he has a, he has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is, and he was able to, obviously, draw on that stuff to be able to portray somebody who, you know, puts one foot in his mouth and then goes another two days and puts the other one. And that was, I think, sort of a key to empathizing, and I don’t know that it made the character more likeable, because he is kind of frustrating in a certain way, but he’s very human.” (Fincher, NPR)
