Went to see this at the Leeds/Bradford Odeon with my friend Aj and having both read the book prior to the film being made, we were wondering how it would transfer to the big screen. When we read the book, neither of us engaged with the main characters as they were just so unlikeable, you didn't really care what happened to them, or what they did to each other and we wondered if this would be the case with the movie.
IMDB says: With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
In this rated 18 David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) directed film, the screenplay and novel written by Gillian Flynn (Sharp Objects, Utopia), Ben Affleck (Argo, Good Will Hunting) and Rosamund Pike (Die Another Day, What We Did On Our Holiday) play married couple Nick and Amy Dunne, whose marriage comes under the scrutiny when she disappears on their fifth wedding anniversary.
When Nick reports the disappearance, Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens: The Blind Side, Hollow Man) and Officer James Gilpin (Patrick Fugit: Almost Famous, We Bought a Zoo) have different opinions as to what has happened but the only person who he feels he can turn to is his twin sister Go (Carrie Coon in her first feature film: One in A Million, The Leftovers), who Amy had a somewhat strained relationship with. Amy's parents Rand (David Clennon: The Thing, Missing) and Marybeth (Lisa Banes: Cocktail, One Life to Live) Elliott set up a hotline and command centre for the search but seem to want to use the whole thing as publicity for their Amazing Amy books, which are are based on Amy's life.
As the police probe deeper into their lives, it seems Amy has a 'best friend' that Nick did not know about, in neighbour and mother of triplets Noelle (Casey Wilson: Bride Wars, Julie and Julia), but this is the least of his problems as his public appeal just seems to make him look more guilty - his smile next to the picture of his missing wife, the smiling selfie with a pretty young woman at the appeal - and he has a big secret to keep, a young mistress who is also his student.
It seems there are other suspects, an ex-boyfriend who admitted to assaulting her and a stalker who used to date her in college, Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris: Starship Troopers, How I Met Your Mother) but things are not as they seem and as the evidence against him mounts, Nick turns to expert lawyer Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry: Diary of A Mad Black Woman, For Better or Worse). The 18 rating is spot on as there are scenes of both violence and sex, including full frontal nudity,
Trivia: Affleck studied men who were accused and convicted of killing their wives for the role and his weight fluctuates throughout due to his casting as the new Batman. Reese Witherspoon withdrew from the role of Amy but still produced under her production label. The film is Fincher's highest grossing movie since The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in 2008. Brad Pitt was considered to play Nick and Rooney Mara, amongst many others such as Jessica Chastain, Emily Blunt and Natalie Portman, were considered for Amy.
Although the characters are still not likeable, the superb acting engages you into caring about what has happened and therefore succeeded, for my friend Aj and I at least, in ways that the book did not.
You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. 7/10
#GoneGirl #BenAffleck #RosamundPike #GillianFlynn #Odeon #NeilPatrickHarris
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