Gone Girl: The Oppositelock Movie Review (SPOILERS)

"Nibby" (nibby68) 11/13/2014 at 21:04 • Filed to: MOVIES

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Okay, it has nothing to do with Oppo, but I had to watch it + write a paper about it for a class, so here goes. SPOILERS.

Gone Girl , directed by David Fincher, tells the tale of a man who reports his wife is missing. This spawns a huge media circus, spreading many rumors and false allegations about some of the characters in the film. It starts off with Nick Dunne and his sister Margo Dunne talking in their bar in Missouri. On their 5 th anniversary, Nick comes home to discover his wife, Amy, is missing. He asks the police to start searching for her. The media suspects Nick murdered Amy, but she feigned her own murder and framed Nick. Throughout the movie, we see the story from both Nick's and Amy's points of view. They've been through a patch of unemployment and dealt with the death of Nick's mother. Amy describes why she's not satisfied with her marriage and she wanted to have a child. Nick tells his unhappiness with the marriage to Margo, who supports him emotionally. However, Margo finds him having sex with one of his former students. The media portrays Nick as an awful, cheating and lying husband while Amy is perceived as innocent. Amy is meticulous in setting up her scheme and she is in the midst of carrying out her plan. Meanwhile, Nick has hired a lawyer to rekindle his public image and goes on a television interview to tell the truth as he knows it. He apologizes to Amy for not being a good enough husband and for cheating on her. After being robbed by two rednecks, Amy ends up moving in with her ex-boyfriend, Desi. After seeing Nick's interview, she frames and murders Desi so that it looked like he kidnapped her and attempted to kill her. The movie concludes with Amy returning home to Nick and they announce on another television interview that they are expecting a baby. Nick is a lazy misogynist who doesn't respect Amy for who she is. Amy becomes a lonely housewife who creates insane schemes to get what she wants.

There is a recurring motif throughout the movie about togetherness and supporting your loved ones through both the best of times and the worst of times. The movie starts and finishes with nearly the same shots and lines. "What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other?" In the beginning, Nick is referring to questions about marriage, trying to figure out how to make his marriage work. In the end; however, Amy's seemingly sinister smirk summarizes the rollercoaster of emotions she and Nick have gone through together. Perhaps Amy knows that Nick no longer trusts her after this ordeal but now he must spend the rest of his life with her. When the scenes take place inside a home, the faces of the characters usually aren't lit well. We see the dark sides of Amy and Nick. Early in the movie, Margo and Nick are at their bar playing the board game Life. This foreshadows Margo sticking by Nick's side throughout the rest of the movie, during Nick's worst times. She reassures Nick that she is with him every step of the way. Before his in-home interview with Sharon Schieber, Nick condemns how she labeled him as a sociopath. Fincher uses the news in the movie to criticize modern day media and tabloids of practicing sensationalist methods while hypothesizing crazy allegations and spreading false rumors. The 24/7 news coverage and vans parked in front of Nick's house makes Nick feel as though he is under constant surveillance. When Desi is murdered, he is completely naked and vulnerable while Amy is still wearing her undergarments. She is in control of the situation and she uses her dominance to get what she wants. When Nick and Amy are showering together, Amy's blood is washing off the damage she's created. They are both trying to atone for their past behavior. We see both husband and wife bare. They have nothing left to hide anymore and are vulnerable. They are united by their infidelity and resolve to be better spouses to each other. In every sex scene during the movie, clothes symbolize dominance and power.

I found Gone Girl to be an enjoyable experience. Rosamund Pike played Amy exceptionally well. She conveyed emotion in every scene yet she was charmingly deceiving. The movie had a fair amount of dry humor, which was a pleasant surprise. However, the characters seemed one-dimensional. There was not m character development throughout the movie. Nick was essentially forced to apologize to Amy during the interview and that was the only time throughout the movie where I trusted either Nick or Amy. The movie captivates the audience with the story. However, after we found the truth about Amy's plan and when Nick cheated on her, any attachment to either character quickly dissipated. They were heavily flawed and seldom did each character give a chance for the audience to root for them. The film was well-directed and it delivers a strong message about the dynamics of marriage. The togetherness and bond between a couple, or lack thereof, may not always reveal how much they know… or even trust each other.

Rico > Nibby 11/13/2014 at 22:41

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Liked this movie a lot

Nibby > Rico 11/13/2014 at 23:02

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Yeah I did too. Even though I don't really watch movies much

Stephen the Canuck > Nibby 11/14/2014 at 13:21

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I want to see it, even if just to see how the ending differs from the book. The ending in the book pissed me off so bad, I wanted to reach into it and slap the guy. Apparently I wasn't the only one, cause the author rewrote the ending for the movie apparently.