Review - Gone Girl

Its either a farce, overblown but entertaining cinema. Or a detailed, true portrayal of sad married life. Whatever it is, its something outstanding.

What are you thinking, Amy?

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Amy Dunne has gone missing. Her husband, Nick Dunne is indifferent. He behaves as if he does not cares. He smiles at press conference. He clicks selfies with some random chick. He doesn't knows her wife's friends. He doesn't knows what does she do all day long. He lies. Has Nick Dunne killed his wife?

Director David Fincher is known to cook up some real good suspense thrillers - I daresay, his Se7en is apparently the best suspense-thriller in among recent, post Hitchcock films. On the other hand, we have Gillian Flynn who wrote a great, great novel about messed up married life, all soaked up in twisted murder/abduction plot. When they both collaborate, we have something awesome to behold.

The film's first half presents itself in a series of flashback narrated by Amy - from her diary - how she met her perfect suitor, Nick; how he made her laugh, made her feel important; how they ended up getting married. They lost their jobs. Their "perfect" lives in New York ended up in the quiet town of North Carthage, Missouri. Their small arguments turned their marriage into a hard work. Slowly, slowly, they are hardly talking. Apparently Nick has hit Amy. Amy now fears Nick may kill her.

And this is interwoven brilliantly with Amy's missing case preceding. The both plot threads meet in the middle of the film - the big, big reveal. Till that, you keep guessing. This cross cutting technique (kudos to Kirk Baxter, the editor) works so well, that the entire viewer prospective of characters change. You love Amy at sometime. You love Nick at sometime. You hate Nick. You hate Amy.

The film presents some real shocking observations on the modern American lifestyle, though I'd rather say it has universal appeal. How a serious issue is turned into a media circus. How selfish, money-minded parents may damage a poor child and turn someone into a monster. Marriage is usually hard. Compromised are to be made. Adjustments are must. But usually, these compromises, these adjustments are more or less made by women - the wives. Men also, never get to know women. Husbands don't know what their wives want. Or why women fight over apparently petty issues. What do wives want. What husbands want.
Combined with stress, continuous disregard, loneliness, cheating, plotting - things are always disastrous. Gone Girl presents the viewers with some deep issues regarding marriage, which is something rare because thrillers are usually all fun and no deep themes. But mind you, this is Fincher cinema.

The acting is all round brilliant. Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne - charismatic, cocky, charming, doubtful and weird. He is a perfect casting. Carrie Coon as soul sister to Nick gave a natural performance. But its Rosamund Pike as Amy who takes the cake. She is smart. Bold. Sexy. Unnerving. Cold. Amazing. What a performance. As if she has over ten characters for each mood. She is outstanding.

Screenplay by Flynn herself is a well balanced version of her wonderfully written novel. The novel is written entirely by two perspectives - Nick's and Amy's for most of the length. Obviously, for the film, it would have not worked. But Flynn morphed her deliciously complex novel into a smart script. Though you will have to miss those wonderful characterizations and descriptions that Flynn wrote.

Fincher gets the job done. He has made another great suspense-thriller with substance. No plot holes. But film is apparently is not believable - I think characters like Amy or her parents perhaps don't exist. Maybe it is a farce. But when you go back, think about it, it is not that unrealistic at all. Either way, farce or truth, Gone Girl is a amazing thriller. Its hard to take your eyes off the screen for most of its run time. Combined with great acting, chilling music (Raznor and Ross -you've done it again), dark, grey frames (Jeff Cronenwerth) - the film leaves you moved, disturbed and highly entertained.

4/5

Review: Gosford Park

Robert Altman's Gosford Park is a chatty, uneven slog of a film. This film is a weird mix of British nobility and some typical Agatha Christie novel - when it works it dazzles and when it doesn't its hard to stay awake. And it works so rarely.

A group of British nobles spend their weekend for shooting at Sir Williams (Michael Gambon) and his wife,  Lady Sylvia's (Kristin Scott Thomas) lavish country manor in 1932. Guests include Williams' sister, Constance (Maggie Smith), Sylvia's two sisters along with their husband, actor Ivor Novello along with Hollywood film producer and some others whose name I don't care to write. A murder happens. The host is killed. Who killed poor Sir Williams?

Guests also brought along their one or more valets with them. So in short you have so many characters in the film that you can consider a separate exercise to keep track who's who in the film.  Most of the upper class nobilities have almost similar names. Same is the case of the servants and valets - they are double in number and they are addressed by their master's surname. Confused?

Anyway, the film proceeds in a leisurely manner. Lazy mornings (breakfast on bed), chatty afternoons (or a single case of countryside shooting gig) and spicy evenings (gourmet food and secret sex). For over an hour, we see so many characters speaking of mundane things or things which simply are dispensable in context of the film. These conversations would have mattered if characters had any strong background story - baring a few. Above all, you have to figure out who the hell they are talking about. At least I had to.

But the main plot (which isn't actually the "main" focus unfortunately) - involving Helen Mirren, Clive Owen and Michael Gambon is profound and moving. Also among the herd of actors, Mirren, Maggie and Kelly truly gave an outstanding performance, perhaps their roles were written FOR the film not for filling up the scenes.

Gosford Park is hard to follow - maybe Altman intended it to be like this. I didn't enjoyed it. Maybe its my fault - I should have paid attention. But I wanted to switch off my TV just after 20 minutes. And that isn't good, is it?

2.5/5