GONE GIRL

DIRECTED BY: DAVID FINCHER
STARRING: BEN AFFLECK, ROSAMUND PIKE, NEIL PATRICK HARRIS
RATING: 8.5/10

When the opening shot of a movie is of a man musing over cracking open his wife's head as if he were writing her a love poem, something's clearly not right.
Smart, eerie, and darkly absurd, “Gone Girl” is the latest feature film of David Fincher, director of acclaimed movies like “The Social Network”, “Se7en” and another I'm not supposed to talk about. Continuing Fincher's tradition of making movies that are better than the book, “Gone Girl” is probably his most terrifying film to date.
The plot revolves around Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), an everyman who comes home on his anniversary to find that his house has been broken into and his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike) has disappeared. The story follows the search for Amy, intertwined with entries from her diary. At first, the entries are cute and romantic tales of their first date and how he proposed, but soon they devolve and get darker and darker, detailing marital strains and Nick's history of domestic violence. Pretty obvious who's the culprit now, right? Wrong.
The more you watch “Gone Girl”, the more you notice that something is off. Some characters seem too perfect and everyone looks and sounds like they're hiding something. You become paranoid and start questioning everything. You ask whether that fairy-tale first date really did happen, or if Nick really is the nice guy he seems to be. The sense of tension and apprehension is only heightened by the ominous soundtrack by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
“Gone Girl” makes fun of people who'd jump to conclusions just by reading four sentences. Fincher satirises the current surge of mass media sensationalism and news channels dumping accusations on people without evidence. Rosamund Pike is simply amazing and is bound to get awards for her performance. Ben Affleck also does a fantastic job, and everyone crying over him being the new Batman should check this out. This movie managed to keep me guessing for the entirety of its runtime, and that's saying something.
“Gone Girl” is playing at Blockbuster Cinemas. Watch it, it's good.