Gone Girl (film)

''Gone Girl'' is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. Set in Missouri, the story is a postmodern mystery that follows the events surrounding Nick Dunne (played by Ben Affleck), who becomes the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike). The film also stars Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry.

''Gone Girl'' premiered as the opening film at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $369 million worldwide against a $61 million budget, to become Fincher's highest-grossing film.

Pike's performance was widely acclaimed by critics, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Additional nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Critics' Choice Award nominations for Flynn's adapted screenplay, which won at Critics' Choice.

Plot

On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife, Amy, missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents' popular ''Amazing Amy'' children's books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. The media suspect Nick due to his apathy towards Amy's disappearance.

In the past, Amy revealed to Nick that ''Amazing Amy'' was a perfected version made up of the real Amy's failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick's hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to support his dying mother. Nick became distant with Amy, and began cheating on Amy with Andie, one of his students, while Amy became resentful towards Nick for making her move to Missouri.

Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a murder. Boney discovers evidence of financial issues, spousal disputes, and Amy's recent propensity to acquire a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy was pregnant, which Nick denies knowing of.

Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary. Amy, this year, had hidden items purchased with Nick's credit card in the shed, as well as a diary that shows Amy's growing dread and ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

Amy drives to a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick's affair, she had conceived a plan to frame him for her murder. She misrepresented the relationship between herself and Nick by falsifying accounts in a diary. Unbeknownst to Nick, she had befriended her neighbor to tell her stories about Nick's temper, and steal her urine to manipulate pregnancy results. She placed supporting evidence of Nick's guilt in the clue spots for the "treasure hunt" to let the police find them. She also splattered her own blood across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She assumed that Nick would be executed for her murder, and planned to drown herself.

Nick deduces Amy's plan and convinces his twin sister, Margo, of his innocence. He flies to New York City and hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy's ex-boyfriend Tommy O'Hara, whom Amy had falsely accused of rape, by ostensible "rape wounds" on her vagina and evidence of O'Hara's semen. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy had filed a restraining order for stalking, but Desi turns him away.

When Amy's campground neighbors rob her, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she fled Nick's abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show affirming his innocence and apologizes for his shortcomings as a spouse to lure Amy out of hiding. Boney believes she has enough evidence to arrest Nick for murder, but Bolt gets him out on bail. Amy realizes that Desi intends to keep her in the house to forcibly rekindle their relationship. Amy then uses Desi's surveillance cameras to help make it appear that he kidnapped and raped her, slits his throat while they have sex, and returns home to Nick covered in Desi's blood, clearing Nick of suspicion and framing Desi as the kidnapper after recounting a false account of their altercation to Boney.

When Boney brings up the inconsistencies with Amy's account, she retorts by calling her incompetent. Amy tells Nick the truth and admits to Desi's murder, saying that him pleading for her to come back is the man she wants. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but there is no evidence of her guilt.

Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals that she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick's sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy's insistence that they should remain married but feels responsible for the child and decides to stay married, despite Margo's qualms. The couple then announces on television that they are expecting a child.

Cast

Production

Development

''Gone Girl'' is a film adaptation of Flynn's 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film's executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn's film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.

Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: "I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through."

Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project. Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn's first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: "... he incherresponded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie."

As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the ''Harry Potter'' series. Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: "We don't have the ability to gift the audience with the characters' thoughts, so tell me how they're behaving." During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher "big swaths" of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten "a dozen times", while other scenes were unaltered.

Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she "wasn't ever precious about cutting." As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne's dead mother.

In terms of the film's ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a "lot of iterations". One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the "third player", alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn's words: "Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn't want 8 million more loop-de-loops ... I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there."

Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher's involvement, as he "really liked the book and didn't want to turn it into something other than what it already was", and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself. Fincher described Flynn's screenwriting work as "very smart", "crafty", and "extremely articulate".

Filming

On September 11, 2013, the ''Gone Girl'' film crew began filming establishing shots. Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks. Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles, with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.

According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene, while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.

Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.

Fincher later called Affleck "extremely bright" in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck "has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is". Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as "tragedy vampirism", but clarified that "''The New York Times'' and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house".

Fashion

The lead costume designer in ''Gone Girl'' is Trish Summerville. Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for ''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo''. Summerville told ''InStyle'' magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy's clothing to look contemporary due to the film's present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells that figuring out what Nick and Amy's 'everyday life' is like was one of her biggest challenges. As a result of Amy's self proclaimed 'cool girl' status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy's pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just "kind of not that girl." This is also exemplified through Amy's jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating 'A' to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.

Nick Dunne's character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck's larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts. The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.

When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy's wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.

Music

On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score, marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following '' The Social Network'' and '' The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo''. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher's request in an interview:

The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality. NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: "Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it'll make the brutal moments of ''Gone Girl'' all the more harrowing." Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song "She", which was used in the film's teaser trailer. The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.

Release

''Gone Girl'' opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, ''Gone Girl'' released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.

Home media

''Gone Girl'' was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015. The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page ''Amazing Amy'' book called ''Tattle Tale''. An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.

Reception

Box office

''Gone Girl'' grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million. Calculating in all expenses, ''Deadline Hollywood'' estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.

The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings). It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema's horror film '' Annabelle'' which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher's career (breaking ''Panic Rooms opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind ''Pearl Harbor'' ($59.1 million), and ''Daredevil'' ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike's second biggest opening—behind ''Die Another Day'' ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old. The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with '' Dracula Untold'' in its second weekend before being overtaken by '' Fury'' in its third weekend.

Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected. High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million), Australia ($4.6 million), France ($3.65 million) Russia ($3.4 million), and Germany ($2.6 million).

Critical response

''Gone Girl'' received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike's performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, ''Gone Girl'' plays to director David Fincher's sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike." Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.

The ''Vulture''s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle. Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote: "Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, ''Gone Girl'' shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched." ''The Economist'' called the film a "brilliantly glacial adaptation ... This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation".

Joshua Rothman wrote in ''The New Yorker'' that he enjoyed the film "in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory" and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is "decisively unreal ... heheroes and villains in Fincher's ''Gone Girl'' aren't people but stories". Rothman, who draws parallels between ''Gone Girl'' and Fincher's 1999 adaptation ''Fight Club'', decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses "a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us".

Anthony Lane of ''The New Yorker'' wrote: "At first blush, ''Gone Girl'' is natural Fincherland ... so why doesn't the movie claw us as ''The Social Network'' did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?" ''Slant Magazine''s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: "Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his ''Gone Girl'' as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial."

In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, "The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn't keep it up, so they destroy each other".

Accolades

''Gone Girl'' garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike's performance, Flynn's screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress. The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score. Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs). The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year, and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.

Top ten lists

''Gone Girl'' was listed on many critics' top ten lists.

* 3rd – Matthew Jacobs & Christopher Rosen, ''The Huffington Post''
* 3rd – Genevieve Koski, ''The Dissolve''
* 3rd – ''People''
* 3rd – Mara Reinstein, ''Us Weekly''
* 3rd – James Rocchi, ''TheWrap''
* 4th – Ben Kenigsberg & Nick Schager, '' The A.V. Club''
* 4th – William Gross, ''Austin Chronicle''
* 4th – Joshua Rothkopf, '' Time Out New York''
* 4th – Brian Tallerico, ''RogerEbert.com''
* 4th – Adam Chitwood, ''Collider''
* 4th – Rene Rodriguez, ''Miami Herald''
* 5th – Peter Travers, ''Rolling Stone''
* 5th – David Ehrlich, '' Little White Lies''
* 7th – Tasha Robinson, ''The Dissolve''
* 7th – Chris Nashawaty, ''Entertainment Weekly''
* 7th – Christopher Orr, ''The Atlantic''
* 7th – Justin Chang & Scott Foundas, ''Variety''
* 8th – Jeff Baker, ''The Oregonian''
* 8th – Christy Lemire ''RogerEbert.com''
* 8th – Steve Persall, ''Tampa Bay Times''
* 8th – James Berardinelli, ''Reelviews''
* 9th – Rene Rodriguez, ''Miami Herald''
* 9th – A.A. Dowd and Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, '' The A.V. Club''
* Top 10 (ranked alphabetically) – Dana Stevens, ''Slate''
* Top 10 (ranked alphabetically) – Calvin Wilson, '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch''
* Top 10 (ranked alphabetically) – Claudia Puig, ''USA Today''

Themes

Gender

In a 2013 interview with ''Time Out'' magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as "polarizing", Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that " women are naturally good" and to show that women are "just as violently minded as men are". In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: "I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: 'I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.' And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written."

In an October 3, 2014, blog post for '' Ms. Magazine'', Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy's social privilege which affords her the "necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time" to stage a disappearance—''Gone Girl'' is the "crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior." Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in ''The Washington Post'' on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially "unconvinced" by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that "Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist."

In an October 6, 2014, article titled "''Gone Girl'''s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself", ''Jezebel'''s Jessica Coen wrote: "Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy's complexities and you're left with little more than 'crazy fucking bitch.' That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel." Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, "as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices." ''Time''s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that ''Gone Girl'' is both "a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman" and a "feminist manifesto", and that this duality makes the film interesting. Zoë Heller of ''The New York Review of Books'' wrote: "The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn't really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness", concluding that "The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper 'disapproval': only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success."

Writing in ''The Guardian'' on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film's "recycling of rape myths", citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare. She wrote: "The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she's been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers." Writing for ''The Guardian'' on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith's argument "wouldn't carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women's stories, and characters in mainstream culture", but concluded with Dockterman's plea for the portrayal of "all sorts of women in our novels".

Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film's predominant focus upon Nick's perspective "serves to obfuscate Amy's motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of ... anti-women myths"; however, Kroenert concludes that ''Gone Girl'' is "a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage."

Media

The media is an important factor in the plot as it ultimately controls the narrative. The narrative that Nick is guilty for the disappearance of Amy is a direct result of his mishandled media appearances as well as the actual misinformation being told as "evidence" on the news. Whether or not Nick is actually guilty, the audience is led to believe he is through the media's manipulation. The role of the media in this film is to provide the conclusion that making snap judgements can be harmful and reveals the importance of carefully assessing situations before making decisions.

Manipulation

While almost all of the characters have ulterior motives to serve their own selfish needs, it is Amy who shows the most prevalent examples of manipulation throughout the story. Not only does Amy lie throughout the entirety of the film, she carefully calculates her plans and predicts behaviors of those around her, especially Nick, to attain her desired outcome and behaviors of those close to her. Amy's intelligence and knowledge of psychology also comes to her aid as she executes her plan; Amy is attractive and can be charismatic which leads people to assume she is innocent. As Nick begins to figure out Amy's plan, he uses manipulation tactics through the media to get Amy to return home. We know that he is disingenuous when he states that he was only "telling her mywhat she wants to hear".

Potential sequel

In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script. In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be "a few years down the road" when the original cast and crew would be available again.

See also

* "Cool Girl", a Tove Lo song inspired by the film

References

Further reading

*

External links

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Find Amazing Amy
promotional website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gone Girl (Film)
2014 films
2010s English-language films
20th Century Fox films
2014 crime thriller films
2014 psychological thriller films
2014 thriller drama films
Adultery in films
American crime thriller films
American psychological thriller films
American thriller drama films
Fiction with unreliable narrators
Films about educators
Films about missing people
Films about murderers
Films about twins
Films about writers
Films based on American novels
Films based on thriller novels
Films directed by David Fincher
Films produced by Reese Witherspoon
Films scored by Atticus Ross
Films scored by Trent Reznor
Films set in 2005
Films set in 2007
Films set in 2009
Films set in 2010
Films set in 2011
Films set in 2012
Films set in Manhattan
Films set in Missouri
Films shot in Illinois
Films shot in Los Angeles
Films shot in Missouri
American nonlinear narrative films
Regency Enterprises films
TSG Entertainment films
2014 drama films
Films produced by Arnon Milchan
2010s American films
Films set in the Ozarks