Gone Girl: Marriage interrupted

October 31, 2014 04:57 pm | Updated December 05, 2021 09:10 am IST

In this image released by 20th Century Fox, Ben Affleck, left, and Rosamund Pike appear in a scene from "Gone Girl." The film, based on the best-selling novel, will release on Oct. 3. (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Merrick Morton)

In this image released by 20th Century Fox, Ben Affleck, left, and Rosamund Pike appear in a scene from "Gone Girl." The film, based on the best-selling novel, will release on Oct. 3. (AP Photo/20th Century Fox, Merrick Morton)

Gone Girl

Genre : Drama

Director : David Fincher

Cast : Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry

An insightful story about a dysfunctional marriage, Gone Girl is a suspense drama that looks you in the eye and makes you fret about what we and modern day relationships have become. David Fincher loves exploring disturbing elements of human nature and here he brings his tools home. Nick faces the crisis of his life when his wife Amy goes missing on the day they complete the fifth year of their marriage.

Based on the bestselling novel by Gilian Flynn, who has also penned the screenplay, the narrative goes back and forth to generate pace and shift perspective. Yes, Nick shows his side of the relationship and Amy comes later with her own point of view leading us to constantly reassess our position. Does Nick really love her or has he lost it after he got the pink slip and cancer gripped his mother. Is the blonde Amy, the single child of her parents up, to a game? Can she cope with the downswing in the relationship?

As we get to know the high and low points of what seems like a pleasant relationship in the beginning, we get into a zone we don’t like to be in real life. That’s the felicity of Fincher. He makes us escape reality without leaving everyday concerns like truth and betrayal. It is entertaining, it is stylish with sarcastic one liners thrown in for good measure. But before you begin to enjoy the lurid details, Fincher and Flynn slip in issues of identity and infidelity. The brightness of good life gives way to the shadows of mistrust. How well do we know the person we live with, the questions crops up time and again. And in between Fylnn comments on the media circus that such ‘missing’ events become.

The casting sustains the cloud of doubt. Affleck’s reticence often becomes exasperating on screen. But here it works just fine for we don’t get to know whether Nick is a killer or a hapless husband. Similarly Pike is charming and chilling at the same time. That also very much describes the film.

Bottomline : A curious take on the mystery of marriage that is entertaining and exploratory at the same time

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