Gone Girl

I read the book and watched the movie in quick succession.

The Book - 4 Stars

I was quite late getting around to reading this book, almost a decade from the height of its cultural relevance. I started on a beach vacation and turned out to be a perfect thrilling read for that purpose. I managed to finish it over 4 days and immediately sat down to watch the movie afterward, and although it's a hideously eye-rolling cliché at this point, the book was much better. There is so much interiority, reflection, and emotion to these characters, and I feel like David Fincher's film somehow managed to suck the color out of it, despite the fact that the author also wrote the screenplay and it was a rather faithful adaptation as far as the plot was concerned. The beats and a lot of the best dialogue were all there, but the film was emotionally bereft whereas the book was brimming with it. I know, I know, it's hard to adapt books with so much inner dialogue. I just wish there had been more voiceover thoughts than the iconic "Cool Girl" speech. There was a lot more that could have been said that way. Frankly I think it should have been directed by a woman. Perhaps that's sexist but I just don't think any man could properly produce any version of what Gillian Flynn wrote.

I greatly enjoyed this book and how much the main characters had to say about marriage, misogyny, image, and relationships. Both the husband Nick's external misogyny bestowed to him by his hateful father, and the internal misogyny of Amy by virtue of her superiority complex bestowed upon her by her own parents felt so rich and authentic. As always, the backstories of these characters were extremely important to making the story compelling (that the movie failed to address adequately.)

What I really loved most about this book is that finally, finally I have my long-coveted female power fantasy. Amy was always three steps ahead and managed to manipulate everyone around her. She was an evil genius, a mastermind. If I had read this when it first debuted, I might have been immature enough to relate to her enthralling psychopathy in the same way many women I know did - with a tongue-in-cheek chuckle, of course, few are really that crazy (or are they? I think many would like it to be inscrutable). Now, at the age of 30, I know without a shadow of a doubt that getting a divorce when everything is under my name anyway and what sounds like a good, iron-clad pre-nup would be plenty revenge for me, and far less work my goodness. But I'm not one to reject failure with as much vehemence as Amy is.

One of the best examples of Amy's brilliance was how Nick counted on the fact that she had "no bullshit detector." That when anyone complemented her or told her what she wanted to hear, she accepted it with 0 scrutiny, as she always took it as her obvious due. So when he went on television to speak the words that she wanted to hear, to lure her home and save him from the death penalty, he knew it world work despite his insincerity. But the problem with exploiting this "weakness" of hers was that Amy didn't really care. It's not that she had no bullshit detector, it's that all of life is a bullshit performance to her. Her entire life she was performing a more desirable persona for everyone else, starting from an incredibly young age for her successful parents. A sociopath like her believes everyone performs a type of perfection. She found the boring, flawed truth of people to be unacceptable and was not interested in it. And so all she wanted was for Nick to perform the same for her. In the end, she managed to "convince" him of her way of seeing things. It was so satisfying.

I can't say exactly why this is a 4 star review instead of 5, as I truly don't have much in the way of critique. But 4 stars feels right, this was a great book but not one of my all-time favorites.

The Film - 4 Stars

I have to acknowledge that based on their previous work, David Fincher as director and Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross as the composers all SEEM like the perfect choices to direct this film. But having read the book before watching, I feel strongly that while this movie managed to retain the feel of an excellent thriller, much of the emotional gravity and interior characterization that made the book so vivid was almost entirely lost to a rather blank, procedural portrayal.

It's sexist, but I think a woman should have directed this. While this story is a fantastic thriller, what made it so beloved was not the riveting plot but the incredibly frank perspectives of the main characters on their marriage, on misogyny (internal and external) and what marriage means to them, to each other, and the effect of social pressure and image on their behaviors.

It's such a shame that only the "Cool Girl" monologue was inserted as a voiceover, as there were so many thoughts that both Nick and Amy had that deserved to be made a part of this story. I know, I know, the film never lives up to the book because the book will allow for more fleshed out characterization so it's really a fair comparison. But at a 2.5 hour run-time, I must note that I finished the book in less than 6 hours, and almost no plot points were cut. I think some plot points could have been skipped in favor of more time with the characters to explore their flaws and strengths (and how their strengths are often also flaws) and I wish it had.

I did enjoy the more graphic, bloody scenes of Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, and Ben Affleck. There were only a few visually compelling scenes but Fincher knows how to shoot blood, that's for sure. Whatever this film lacked, it was not the fault of these actors, I only wish they could have displayed more of a range. I did see that Ryan Reynolds was in the running for the character of Nick (according to iMBd) and he was perhaps the only actor that might have been more perfect for the role - it was important that Nick had a face that was very handsome but also just inherently pissed some people off, and boy does Ryan have that going for him to a T. Affleck is probably a better actor though.

Overall I found this movie to be just okay, too flat and grey to be good, but compelling and exciting enough to not be bad. I'll try to read Sharp Objects next for sure, as Gillian Flynn is definitely a great writer I'd like to explore more of, and hope that the miniseries holds up a bit better than Gone Girl did in comparison to its source material.