Gone Girl (2014)
Written By: CM
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Film Information
Director: David Fincher
Producers: Amon Milchan, Joshua Donen, Reese Witherspoon, Cean Chaffin
Screenplay: Gillian Flynn
Date Released: October 3, 2014
Cast:
Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne
Rosamund Pike as Amy Elliott Dunne
Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings
Tyler Perry as Tanner Bolt
Carrie Coon as Margo “Go” Dunne
Kim Dickens as Detective Rhonda Boney
Patrick Fugit as Officer James Gilpin
Missi Pyle as Ellen Abbott
Emily Ratajkowski as Andie Fitzgerald
Rating = 4/5 Graves
***May contain some spoilers***
Synopsis
When the glamour of New York faded out during the recession, writer Nick Dunne and his well-known wife Amy found themselves unhappy with their marriage. When Amy went missing during their fifth anniversary, the media started unraveling the mystery of their picture-perfect marriage and questioning Nick’s innocence in Amy’s absence.
Gore Factor
Being a psychological thriller, Gone Girl scares its audience not by gore, but by twisted storytelling. However, there’s one scene involving a lot of blood that definitely leaves a mark.
The Grave Review
If you’re looking for a film that will trigger an inner moral conflict, Gone Girl is the film to watch. It has aged well six years after its initial release. In this year of reverse abuse cases with the likes of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, Gillian Flynn’s story portrays these real-life cases in a striking way that is just as disturbing as your usual blood-and-monster horror flicks.
When Gone Girl first came out, critics were divided as to whether or not the psychological thriller is feminist or not. They questioned its self-awareness. The film was riddled with stereotypes and even harmful tropes such as the missing white woman syndrome, fake rape cases, and crazy rich women. People either thought it was satire or a horrible decision to exaggerate real-life cases in hopes of creating a thrilling plot despite its damaging effects. Until now, some critics are still divided. One thing’s for sure, Gone Girl succeeded in both angles.
Gone Girl (2014) provided a twisted narrative, dissecting people’s fascination with the rich and famous and what they would sacrifice to keep their pristine image—sometimes including their sanity. The story itself was spine-chilling. As it progresses, it keeps the viewers at the edge of their seats trying to figure out what could happen next. In the end, it was satisfying and just enough to question all the famous couples people admire.
Screenplay is often underrated in horror films. The industry tends to focus on the tricks they can pull for momentary reactions. Gone Girl leaves the jumpscares behind, sacrificing reaction for some satisfying, slow-burn mystery. Paired with the cast’s stellar performance, even earning Rosamund Pike’s Oscar’s Best Actress trophy, it doesn’t bore you from start to end.
If there’s one bad thing about this film, it would be the obvious plot holes. It ran for 149 minutes but somehow managed to leave out some details that made it less realistic. In the last scenes of the film, the media seemed to buy Amy’s story. Why wasn’t it further investigated? Why didn’t they notice her blase demeanor despite being covered in her alleged rapist’s blood? These questions took some of the eerie realism, which is the very thing that makes it scary, out of the film.
It’s quite hard to give Gone Girl (2014) a fair rating that would resonate to most viewers, but we’ll keep it at four out of five graves for being able to be both misogynistic and feminist at the same time, terrifying despite the lack of gore and special effects, and effective in storytelling and acting aside from a few plot holes.
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