Notes for Gone Girl

Film: Gone Girl

Year Of Release: 2014

Director: David Fincher

Notes from viewing number 1 (11.10.2021)

Rating: 10/10

- Gone Girl is an amazing thriller from David Fincher, the king of modern thrillers. It's also a fascinating and rather complex study of modern relationships. It's delivered with icy cold direction, and the way the story slowly unravels is incredible.

- Gone Girl has an amazing cast, but it's Rosamund Pike who steals the show. She is incredibly cold and manipulative, but we still root for her. How she didn't win the Oscar is beyond me.

- As I said, the direction is cold. And I mean icy cold. Much colder than what we usually see in David Fincher films. There's no creative transitions or camera movements that catch your eye, but still the film flows like water. Some of Fincer's best direction yet.

- The way the story slowly unravels itself is incredible. There's so much going on, but still the film is as smooth as butter. And then comes the big reveal of Amy being a sociopath, and there's no way you won't be blown away by that.

- One thing I noticed was the amazing editing. When people slowly begin to become suspicious of Nick, there's no big line or moment to reveal that, it's revealed through some very subtle editing that catches all the weird looks, and you barely notice it. And the editing flows too. Kudos to editor Kirk Baxter.

- The score by Ross and Reznor is also amazing, and works well with the films cold feel. It's isn't as good as their all-time great score for The Social Network, but it's still one of the best of 2014.

- I also realized that Gone Girl may be about media. The media is almost portrayed as theater, and it's really fascinating. There's also the whole thing about how Amy wants to be Amazing Amy, and that her plan almost acts as a way to be viewed by everyone as Amazing Amy. There's certaintly something to dive into there, and I probably will if I make a review of this.

- Nick and Amy get a fairytale ending, at least that's how it seems to the media. They never really become happy, and both are psychopaths that clearly shouldn't be together, but the media only wants happy endings, and so they get one. It's a rather cynical ending in that regard, and when Fincher hits you with the gut punch that is "That's marriage", you reflect back on the whole film. I'm going to be revisiting this one.