David Fincher, director of classics such as Fight Club and Seven once again plays with your brain like a marionette, Gone Girl is a psychological mystery movie that not only makes you question the conventions of the world around you but the world according to your own mind. Our protagonist and antagonist (really it switches so much it's just easier not saying who's who) Nick and Amy Dunne are two former writers who have had to relocate from New York to Missouri due to the recession and the degrading health of Nick's mother. Told in both internal and external flashbacks we see the rise and fall of the Dunne families marriage, both are introduced as witty, likable and an instant and believable chemistry that lays testament to Affleck and Pikes acting abilities.
Flash back to the present and we see a changed couple, Nick has become distant and cheating partner with a much younger woman whereas as Amy is portrayed as a beaten wife losing faith in even trying to salvage her marriage, all this is shown after the main driving force of the story. As Nick returns home the house shows signs of a break in and Amy appears to be kidnapped.
Nick is quizzed by the intuitive Detective Boney, a character that features as a heavy contrast to her partner, a bigoted cop who just see's things as they are which later on mirrors your own perceptions of domestic abuse, More on that later though. Naturally you try to figure out her disappearance from the get go and your assumptions are fueled by any evidence dug up by Boney and her partner or through the interactions between Nick and his twin sister Margo, a bar owner who seems to serve both as Nicks conscience and our insight into the real Nick.
I'll be honest and admit I suspected Nick as the killer due to some scenes of domestic violence and fairly harsh narrative on his part, it lured me in and just made me appreciate the reveal all that more. Rosamund Pike deserves her Oscar nomination. Amy is described as incredibly intelligent and a little standoffish right from the start but even this was downplayed. Very reminiscent of Sharon stone in Basic Instinct and Glenn Close in Fatal Attraction, Pike joins the great halls of psychotic spurned lovers, framing Nick for everything and leading him into state execution, Amy Dunne will terrify you in her soft spoken tone and remorseless actions.
Plagued by the media circus led by Amy's disappearance and the news' yo-yo portrayal of him as a good husband/uncaring sociopath/anti-Christ, Nick attempts to track down the other former partners in Amy's past, a rapist and a stalker. As it turns out one of these is not like the other and the man accused of raping her was framed by an angry Amy for not liking the ties she bought him, in retaliation she maims herself and plays off peoples perception of her as a helpless little woman, a trope again portrayed later as a room full of FBI agents and Boney all fall head over heels for her and treat like the precious thing she is, all except Boney who begins to see the psychotic Amy as a wolf in sheep's clothing.
The film raises themes from the forefront, the corruption of modern media and the see want you want to see style of journalism we see on a daily basis. Tyler Perry plays a somewhat shameless Lawyer who teaches Nick ways of presenting himself on camera to win over the general public, everything is calculated and reiterates the false apologies you see from celebrities and politicians.
What I found most interesting was the portrayal of domestic abuse on both partners behalf, statistically men are the more abusive gender when it comes to relationships but it doesn't for a second mean that women can't be abusive either. While Amy never really harms Nick physically she psychologically tortures him like a maestro, reducing the big strong man to a nervous wreck who stays awake at night behind a locked door in fear his wife will destroy him.
