{"id":667,"date":"2014-10-06T19:09:55","date_gmt":"2014-10-06T23:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=667"},"modified":"2026-10-13T13:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T17:06:15","slug":"gone-girl-2014","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=667","title":{"rendered":"Gone Girl-2014"},"content":{"rendered":"

Gone Girl-2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director David Fincher<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #181<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"70305893\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed October 6, 2014<\/p>\n

Grade: A-<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gone Girl (2014), directed by dark-yet-mainstream filmmaker David Fincher, offers a simple premise.<\/p>\n

An affluent woman disappears without warning and a loved one is suspected of the crime.<\/p>\n

This type of story has been done many times before in film; think Prisoners (2013) as a recent example, but Gone Girl stands out for its storytelling, pacing, and plenty of twists and turns.<\/p>\n

The film is based on the best-selling novel, written by popular novelist Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay.<\/p>\n

Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, a man in his 30s whose wife, Amy, magnificently played by Rosamund Pike, mysteriously disappears, sparking a media frenzy.<\/p>\n

After clues are revealed, Nick is thought to be a sociopath and responsible for Amy’s disappearance.<\/p>\n

Nick and Amy have the perfect marriage\u2026 or so it appears. Until fairly recently, Nick and Amy have lived an idyllic, well-to-do lifestyle in New York City.<\/p>\n

Amy’s family is wealthy and writes as successful children’s authors.<\/p>\n

After the 2010 recession, which causes Nick and Amy to lose their jobs and all their money, and with Nick’s parents’ health problems, they find themselves in a state of peril, and their marriage is severely tested.<\/p>\n

They are forced to move to a small town in Missouri where Nick grew up, and their lifestyle completely changes.<\/p>\n

The film reveals these facts as it progresses through flashbacks, mostly from Amy’s perspective, as she chronicles events in her diary.<\/p>\n

The story is so smart and layered that the audience continually asks questions throughout the film.<\/p>\n

Is Amy dead? Did she fake her death? Is Nick involved or innocent? Could Amy’s parents be involved in her disappearance? Can we trust Nick’s sister Margo? What involvement does Amy’s wealthy college sweetheart Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris) have?<\/p>\n

As more of the plot unfolds, new questions arise.<\/p>\n

Intelligently written, with twists and turns galore, after a slow start, the film is a thrill ride. The slow start is necessary to lay the film’s groundwork, and it wisely keeps the audience guessing throughout.<\/p>\n

The film feels like a puzzle (literally and figuratively), as each layer unravels and raises new questions and theories.<\/p>\n

Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails) composes the film’s score, adding a dark, techno-gloomy feel that heightens the mood.<\/p>\n

The acting in Gone Girl is exceptional.<\/p>\n

Affleck is capable in the lead male role, though I didn’t find the part as meaty as one might expect. Affleck is handsome and charismatic, though unlikeable too, and I think that is all the part requires.<\/p>\n

The standout and breakout performance belongs to Rosamund Pike. After years of struggling in support roles as someone\u2019s wife or friend, Pike finally has a complex role that lets her sink her teeth in.<\/p>\n

Pike displays almost every emotion- kindness, anger, rage, deception, humor.<\/p>\n

Amy is nuanced and resourceful, and more than one moviegoer’s mouth dropped open at her actions in a couple of scenes, think wine bottle and hammer.<\/p>\n

Neil Patrick Harris is dynamic as Desi and brings a healthy dose of creepiness mixed with childlike sweetness.<\/p>\n

Gone Girl features one of the most shocking scenes involving a bedroom, a box cutter, and lots of blood.<\/p>\n

Fincher’s setting of North Carthage, Missouri, is interesting. Hardly the Manhattan intelligentsia Nick and Amy are accustomed to, the film effectively portrays the perfect mix of homespun kindness that turns into a lynch mob of townspeople.<\/p>\n

The sweet neighbors, who happily offer Nick casseroles and hugs one minute, suddenly turn into sharks when the details are revealed.<\/p>\n

The media is, almost ironically, portrayed as menacing and ready to pounce. Sela Ward and Missy Pyle play female reporters who are, deliciously and comically, menacing and ready to pounce.<\/p>\n

More than a handful of female characters are written as borderline man-hating and eager to either castrate, figuratively speaking, or bed (or both!), Nick Dunne.<\/p>\n

Gone Girl contains a few plot holes. How could there be no recorded tapes of the goings-on at Desi\u2019s lake house? The entire plot is so far-fetched when one decides to ponder it.<\/p>\n

Gone Girl (2014) is a mainstream yet dark Hollywood thrill ride with a theme of dishonesty, and a film exceptionally well-written and layered.<\/p>\n

Oscar Nominations:<\/strong> Best Actress-Rosamund Pike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gone Girl-2014 Director David Fincher Starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike Scott’s Review #181 Reviewed October 6, 2014 Grade: A- Gone Girl (2014), directed by dark-yet-mainstream filmmaker David Fincher, offers a simple premise. An affluent woman disappears without warning and a loved one is suspected of the crime. This type of story has been done many … Continue reading Gone Girl-2014<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11769,204],"tags":[2935,6083,4854,12649,1863,12880,12879,4853,12881,2065,2820,6084,4855,3006,2835],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-films","category-psychological-thriller","category-thrillers","tag-ben-affleck","tag-boyd-holbrook","tag-carrie-coon","tag-casey-wilson","tag-david-fincher","tag-kim-dickens","tag-missi-pyle","tag-neil-patrick-harris","tag-patrick-fugit","tag-reese-witherspoon","tag-rosamund-pike","tag-scoot-mcnairy","tag-sela-ward","tag-trent-reznor","tag-tyler-perry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24793,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions\/24793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}