Thoughts on the movie 'Gone Girl'

Yesterday afternoon we went to see the new movie 'Gone Girl' at the Bowtie Chelsea Theaters.  The film, inspired by the novel by Gillian Flynn, is directed by David Fincher using Ms. Flynn's screenplay.  At 2 hours and 27 minutes it is very long, but the audience in the comfortable newly renovated Theater 7 at the Chelsea remained quiet and engaged throughout.

Official movie poster for 'Gone Girl'

The movie stars Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne, who returns home to find his wife, Amy Elliott-Dunne, (played by Rosamund Pike) is missing.  Nick and Amy had both lost their jobs in New York City, sold their New York brownstone and moved back to Missouri where Nick's mother was dying of cancer.  Nick and his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) are running a local bar, ironically named 'The Bar'.  Amy stays at home 'writing'.

Nick calls the police (Kim Dickens and Patrick Fuggit play the detectives) to report Amy's disappearance.  Amy's parents (played by Lisa Banes and David Clennon) arrive from the East Coast.  Nick and the Elliotts hold a press conference to raise awareness about Amy's disappearance.

In addition to being a psychological thriller with multiple plot twists and turns and dead-ends, the movie is about the voracious media feeding frenzy that is set in motion by Amy's disappearance.  (Any number of fairly recent crimes come to mind as models.)  Missi Pyle is wonderful as Ellen Abbott, the Nancy-Grace-like TV crime show commentator who puts Nick on trial on her show.  Sela Ward is equally good as Sharon Schrieber, the somewhat less judgmental cable TV host who lands the one-on-one interview with Nick.  With tongue-in-cheek relish Tyler Perry plays the celebrity lawyer Tanner Bolt who schemes to keep Nick out of jail and off the electric chair .

Affleck, as the schlubby husband who expects everyone to believe he is innocent, finds unexpected depths and layers in Nick as each new turn in the plot unfolds.  Nick's apparently never heard the old canard that 'the husband is always a suspect'.

Mr. Fincher keeps the large cast (which also includes Neil Patrick Harris, Scoot McNairy and Casey Wilson in a key roles) moving through Ms. Flynn's well-oiled plot mechanics all the way to the final ironic twist.  If you don't hear more about the plot before you see it, you'll be enthralled by this intelligent genre movie.