Gone Girl

Book, 2012; Movie, 2014, R

Premise - On the morning of Nick and Amy Dunne's five year anniversary, Amy goes missing. In her place are signs of a struggle, and the first clue to a treasure hunt, one which Amy has Nick complete every year on their anniversary to celebrate their love. As Nick tries to solve the clues to Amy's treasure hunt to track down her final movements, the police investigate Nick as the prime suspect in her disappearance.


Review - WHAT A STORY. OH MY GOODNESS. A THRILLER IF I'VE EVER READ ONE.
I read the book first (well, specifically I listened to the audiobook), and then watched the movie second. The two share a lot of stunning similarities, which I owe to Gillian Flynn writing both the novel and the screenplay, but my main focus will be on the original novel. Major spoilers ahead.

I actually may have had the story spoiled for me a bit by reading Roxane Gay's Bad Feminist, in which she discusses Amy Dunne as an incredibly well written female character. I listened to this an audiobook as well, and tried my best to just zone out during this part, knowing I may read the book myself one day. When I started Gone Girl, in the back of my mind I kept thinking, "Isn't she a psychopath or something? Wasn't that what Roxane Gay talked about?" But honestly, and I do mean honestly, within the first chapter of Amy Dunne's diary entries, I had forgotten. The memory instead turned into, "Hmm... I thought Roxane Gay wrote about her being a psychopath but I guess I was wrong, maybe I'm thinking of another book?" and then further morphed into, "Wow what a great female character! No wonder Roxane Gay wrote about her, just because she's really well fleshed out and relatable!" and threw out the psychopath theory entirely. So, when as it turns out she was, indeed, a psychopath staging her own murder, I FLIPPED OUT. How, even when I was GIVEN the answer, did I not see the plot twist coming???? At all???? She was just SO well written during her fake diary entries that I completely fell for it. What a shame. I really liked diary-Amy.

Not only did I believe in diary-Amy, but diary-Amy made me doubt Nick for a while, even though we as readers KNEW he didn't do it, at least not consciously. Half the book is narrated by Nick, who is just as confused as we are. We also followed him and his thoughts the morning of, before he comes home to find the house empty. So Nick is not a suspect in the readers' minds at the start, but some of Amy's diary entries made me question. Nick staring at credit card statements?? Nick shoving Amy?? These are in direct contradiction with the Nick we knew. I started to wonder about a dissociative identity problem, like Nick did it when he didn't even realize.

The big twist when we find out Amy is still alive is the most climactic moment in the book. This is when we find out not only who did it, but how and why. However, it occurs about halfway through the novel. Everything after this point is incredibly entertaining, and fast-paced, but never reaches that high climax again. This creates for a somewhat flat ending. I wanted the novel to keep going. I found myself coming closer and closer to the end, and increasingly frustrated as I realized what this meant. There would be no justice and Amy would never be found out.

The movie is able to pull off the pacing a bit more successfully by making the biggest climactic scene out of Desi's death, closer to the end of the story. Out of all the scenes in the film, this is the one that will haunt me. However, this meant that in the film, Amy's big reveal fell a little bit flat in comparison to the novel, so there's a give and take.

Overall, as I have said, I am impressed with the film's accuracy. But what makes the novel so great is our insight into these incredible characters' inner thoughts, alternating back and forth between Nick and Amy, and that cannot be replicated in film. Nor can the film capture all of the details of how Amy was able to pull off her own murder mystery, how intricately she thought it through, and how she left no loose ends. This was a two and a half hour movie, which allowed for a large amount of details to be kept in, but inevitably many lost the cut. Lastly, as far as casting, Nick and Margo were absolutely PERFECT. There is no better Nick than Ben Affleck. He got every little detail right. Just the way he looks... I would totally classify Ben Affleck as a "charming sheepish white guy who you still can't trust because he totally looks like he could be an abuser/rapist behind closed doors." No offense, Ben Affleck, but it's true. He looks like a liar. The rest of the casting was hit or miss. Tanner Bolt wasn't sleazy enough, and the detectives weren't unattractive or old enough. But really who matters is the casting of Amy, who is such a nuanced and difficult character. Rosamund Pike definitely looks the part, but she is not my Amy. Rosamund has a deep, sultry voice that's helps add to a creepy tone, but makes her a little bit monotone and suspect from the start.  I became highly attached to the audiobook voice for Amy, who spoke with a much higher voice and much more variability. Sweet and innocent one sentence, vindictive and spiteful the next. The range of emotion was incredible and that's what I wanted to see and hear in someone so two-faced.

The book is nearly flawless. There's an odd humor to it, and a sick sense of romance. The voices (and I don't just mean the audiobook literal voices, but the tone through which each character was written, the written "voices") for each character were so emotionally and contemporarily written, I have mad respect for Gillian Flynn. (93/100)


Quote - “Sleep is like a cat: It only comes to you if you ignore it.”

What to watch for - I mentioned this above, but if you watched the film, just focus on Ben Affleck as Nick. So utterly fascinating, seeing all of his various defense mechanisms. The way he just keeps SMILING when his wife is missing makes him look so guilty, but it comes from a sense of politeness and awkwardness that Ben Affleck got SO RIGHT. I didn't really respect him much as an actor until this film.

If you liked this book or film, I'd recommend The Invisible Guest!

Written by Gillian Flynn
Published by Crown Publishing Group
Directed by David Fincher
Distributed by 20th Century Fox