With my brain in overdrive, I was in the mood for a nice mindless movie the other night.
So, I settled for the thriller “Gone Girl”.
(Because everyone said to and I’m easily manipulated).
My review is kinda half-and-half on this film. I suppose what started me off a little sour was the familiar plot: beautiful, blonde, femme-fatale marries a guy who owns a bar, everyone kinda hates her, and… wait. Didn’t I see this story so long ago that I had to rewind the VHS tape I was watching it on afterward?
(Ah, yes. “To Die For”. That’s what we’re building on here.)
Once I moved past that, I actually really was enjoying it. I could, because the plot similarities between the 90’s drama and this film were overshadowed by the way it came together. Between the Trent Reznor composed ethereal soundtrack and the dream-like cinematography (slightly reminiscent of a Coppola flick), the experience was benzo-esque. If I had to compare it to anything, I’d say it’s like the psychotic fraternal twin to “Wicker Park”. It also helped that Pike, the leading lady, seems like the somehow Sapphically born lovechild of a young Kim Novak and Sienna Miller. And that Ben is… well… Ben.
“Villain chin” and all.
Equally smart was the way the director trolls the audience by withholding information.
The suspicion that Affleck’s character may have killed his wife builds as he smiles during press conferences about his missing wife and absentmindedly agrees to be in selfies with camera bearing vultures. That rising sentiment against him is only exacerbated when we suddenly find out he was dicking around on wifey – and still is. While she’s missing.
What we’re missing though, is all that couple-stuff in relationships we didn’t get to see.
All we have are the contrivedand chronologically crafted fantasy journal pages of the woman who fakes her own death impeccably the moment she’s transformed into a woman scorned. And since we’ve been doubting and hating on Ben for a good portion of the movie, we can’t help but feel this extreme, illegal, immoral act of retaliation is fitting – at first. But she’s made unlikeable double-fast soon after she gets the eff outta Dodge. We start to see her identity unravel. She gets fat and brunette. She drops the facade and dresses frumpy. We see how she really is in the privacy and isolation of not being defined by a significant other – shoveling snacks into her face and obsessing over her own missing-person coverage. We start to judge her and eventually hate her – the way we hated her cheating husband – who’s suddenly scored a few extra points by default now.
So that emotional trolling and missing context really tied this film together nicely.
Ultimately, this movie ends with a metaphorical question mark.
Affleck’s internally interrogating himself about what’s going to happen next.
My first thought was “Well, it’d be cool to see a sequel that’s like Roald Dahl’s ‘The Twits’, except with more blood.” Ya know? The one where they do horrible things to each other but stay married? Affleck’s already not answering his sister when she says “OMGz, you want to stay with that cray bish?” (which is like a default answer for “Yeah, her psychosis makes my boring life more interesting.”) So, it’d be fun if they lived out their lives in some weird, subtler version of “War of the Roses” between smiling for the cameras and making bank off’a interviews.
But I know better.
What would really happen here is pretty simple.
Bish is gonna get her comeuppance and here’s why:
When a homicide (like with NPH’s character) happens, they’d check more than just that video evidence at his (amazing-wish-it-were-mine) house to see her faking rape escape. They’d look into where the dude had been in the weeks leading up to his death. And that would have led them to his phone records. Which would have led them to her payphone call from outside the casino. Which would have led them to video footage inside the casino of the two of them meeting. They’d probably even have a nice clear shot of her mug, gazing up hypnotically at the T.V.’s that were covering hubby’s side piece going public with their affair. There was even a guy who – during her very brief time meeting Neil’s character there – recognized her (as the fake identity she’d given) right away. So it wouldn’t take long to get the locals to confirm she’d been there and was the one who made the call. If these folk were desperate enough to steal her money, they wouldn’t turn down potential compensation by reporters in the midst of helping police.
And just like that, Mrs. Dunn’s own “villain chin” gets revealed.
Boom. Amazing Amy gets lethal injection.
There’s the epilogue to your question mark ending.
Funny, how the few times I watch these flicks to go mindless… I end up over-thinking ’em.