The best films about marital woes and anxieties tend to skew toward extremes of representation; claustrophobic, ostensibly realistic snapshots like Bergman’s Scenes From A Marriage (1973) and Cassavetes’ A Woman Under The Influence (1974), or surreal, allegorical phantasmagorias such as Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession (1981), in which Isabelle Adjani’s restlessness with hubby Sam Neill manifests in the form of a demonic possession.
Gone Girl, adapted from Gillian Flynn’s bestseller by director David Fincher, doesn’t feature anything as outlandish as Adjani having sex with a tentacled demon creature, but it belongs more to the latter category than the former, using a blatantly preposterous plot – beginning with the disappearance of Amy (Rosamund Pike) in suburban Missouri, and the search that puts a nationwide media spotlight on her husband Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) – to envision marriage as an epic battle of control and manipulation.
Outlining what makes both the film (and its source material) potentially problematic without spoiling its many surprises is a tough task, though it’s a testament to Fincher’s expert control of mood and sense of humour that the film remains immersive and entertaining beyond its many twists and turns, all faithfully transplanted from Flynn’s novel. It’s also one of the most cannily cast films in recent memory, with Affleck, Tyler Perry and Neil Patrick Harris utilised in a way that allows for productive extra-textual frisson, and the gifted Pike owning her challenging role.
Nonetheless, much like Fincher’s much-loved Se7en and Fight Club were, on one level, slickly packaged mainstream Trojan horses for dime-store philosophising, the satire of Gone Girl has a rankling smugness to it; tsk-tsking at media sensationalism while giving into a not-too-dissimilar impulse. Additionally, Fincher’s patented detached, procedural style – with a visual sheen somewhere between an insurance commercial and Korn video – often feels at odds with the overheatedness of the material; it highlights why his best films (Zodiac, The Game) are also his most sheerly process-oriented. It might’ve been more resonant had it wedded its glib misanthropy to a less naturalistic and more hyperbolic method of delivery.
3.5/5 stars
Gone Girl is in cinemas now.
