Film Review: Gone Girl

‪ 

Gone Girl. Rated MA15+ (strong sexualised violence, blood, sex scenes and coarse language). 149 minutes. Directed by David Fincher. Screenplay by Gillian Flynn, based on her novel. 

Verdict: With not a Marvel superhero in sight, it’s time for a hyper-sexualised, meltdown thriller. 

When Nick Dunne’s (Ben Affleck) wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) vanishes on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary, the brooding Nick finds himself becoming the prime suspect in her disappearance. Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) does her best to remain objective, while his sister Margo (Carrie Coon) steadfastly remains his strongest ally. 

As the media (who camp outside Nick and Amy’s home), feed on the story and fuel the public’s hatred and suspicion of Nick and his motives, the circumstances surrounding Amy’s disappearance take a spectacular turn for the worse.

Flynn’s screenplay is the perfect antithesis to the lovelorn, teen angst genre that, along with characters from the Marvel Universe, have been taking up more than their fair share of time on our cinema screens lately. Gone Girl is a sharp, cynical story about the collapse of a marriage, and how seething contempt and misery can destroy what was once a perfectly contented union of soul mates.

Fincher’s (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Zodiac, Fight Club, Se7en) vision for the film matches the story’s spare, clinical brutality, and his frequent collaborator cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, realises that grim vision faultlessly.

If Affleck’s performance as Nick is unconvincing, it is because he has done much better work than this (Argo specifically), and Pike’s Amy suffers from having to escort the story into the realm of the ridiculous.

Even though there are certainly movies that cover similar terrain in a superior manner, lovers of thrilling, and somehow occasionally hilarious, human meltdown drama will more than likely savour every horrible minute.

This review was commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.

Film Review: The Social Network

The Social Network. Rated M (coarse language). 120 minutes. Directed by David Fincher. Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin. Based on the novel The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich.

When contemplating the game-changing social-networking website ‘Facebook’, the statistics are staggering. Consider, for example, the following: more than 500 million active users; 50% of active users log on to Facebook in any given day; and people spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

And while the debate rages regarding the extent of The Social Network’s authenticity, you can’t take anything away from the film as a sensational piece of cinematic story-telling. Fincher (Alien 3, Se7en, Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) and Sorkin (The West Wing, Sports Night, A Few Good Men) have absolutely nailed the complexity of what just may have happened behind the scenes as the behemoth website was created.

The Social Network boasts the most brilliant performances from an exceptional young ensemble, with Jesse Eisenberg (Zombieland) and Andrew Garfield (Boy A), in particular, superb as Facebook founders Mark Zuckerberg and Eduardo Saverin respectively. Justin Timberlake proves he can, in fact, do anything with a fantastic turn as Napster founder and Facebook interloper Sean Parker.

But anyone familiar with Sorkin’s uncanny ability to write in often surprising detail about the intricacy of human interaction, will recognise the rich layering of emotion that gives much of The Social Network its cinematic torque – all spun masterfully from the simple premise of the extent to which Zuckerberg has to defend the proprietary rights over his much-loved creation.

With flawless cinematography from Jeff Cronenweth (Fight Club), pace-perfect editing from long-time Fincher collaborator Angus Wall and Sydney-born Kirk Baxter (… Benjamin Button), and a brilliant original score from Atticus Ross (The Book of Eli) and Trent Reznor (Nine Inch Nails), The Social Network powers along for every one of its 120 minutes – never looking or feeling like anything less than a monumental labour of love for everyone concerned – resulting in one of the most perfect films of the year.

Pictured: Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield.

This review was commissioned by the Geraldton Newspaper Group.