Gone Girl

[Totenkindly]

Did anyone else see this?

I've never read the book, so I'm curious to hear from readers in terms of how it might match up.

The movie started slow for me in terms of my interest (I've never been much of a Ben Afflect fan either), and the tonal shifts were a little distracting, but as it turns out where the movie went and how it ended are lingering on me a few hours later and are just plain disturbing to me in a way that the straightforward crime approach the movie began as would not have been. It's kind of unsettling.

Affleck was solid, as was almost everyone in the cast (lots of good work casting not-quite-famous actors here), although this was kind of a tour de force by Rosamund Pike. This film could actually be a huge break for her in terms of her name becoming part of popular culture; she pulled off this role in a more natural way than even Nicole Kidman has.

As far as theme, to quote from the review I wrote up:

The film plays with perspective and truth a great deal, although by movie’s end we have a decent understanding of the most important facts of the story. It’s unclear for a while how reliable the different narrators are, and meanwhile there’s an underlying interplay with the US media which is constantly spinning stories and judging people in the court of public entertainment. What is guilt and innocence but the stories we spin based on the facts we find most interesting and that resonate with core feelings within ourselves? The movie highlights how fictions are not merely the product of the spinners but the audience as well, by how they respond to and modify the narratives with their own energy. Everyone is complicit in the convenient twisting and pillaging of the facts, until public opinion and cultural narrative become the only story that matters.

 

[highlander]

It was a good movie but not really my kind of thing. I'm sure a lot of people love it though.

 

[Totenkindly]

I think their budget was only around $60 million and they made $38 million opening weekend.




EDIT: IN other news... trailers.

I covered my eyes and ears during INterstellar because I really want to go into that movie cold and not have it all ruined for me.

THey also ran the 50 Shades of Gray trailer. Yikes, it was all pretty much "p0rn for women," the dialogue, the casting, the story, i was laughing out loud it was so geared towards everything that "generic women" want to hear. Dear god. Afterwards, a bunch of women started laughing. It was pretty cray.

Then they ran the Fury trailer, which had "Man movie" written all over it.

 

[93JC]

I saw Gone Girl. Excellent. They could have ended it after a little over an hour and it would have been a good movie, but it kept getting better.

One line stuck with me. It's the most succinct summary of this film I can think of: "You two are the most fucked up people I've ever met."

Never read the book.

 

[Totenkindly]

One line stuck with me. It's the most succinct summary of this film I can think of: "You two are the most fucked up people I've ever met.".

yeah, that one really leaped out at me too, and you're totally right. Just... wow.

 

[Arctic Hysteria]

I've finally seen it. Loved what it tried to convey, though there were parts that fell short in terms of characters revealing in order to convince the audience (I guess the book did a better job (?) )
Loved the OST work by Trent Reznor.

Rosamund Pike was mind blowing. Beautiful. Complex. Sick. 90% of the time unreadable, expressionless, stone cold. Only 10% of that 139 minutes we got to see the profound emotional damage in her eyes.

I love movies where a nihilistic sick character attempts to destroy a pathetic yet likable protagonist, leaving audience disturbed, exposed and uncomfortable.

 

[Totenkindly]

I really liked Nick's sister (Margo?). She provided a kind of "stabilizing force" to the narrative and the "everyman's view" of the proceedings. It's one of the movies that could screw with your head otherwise, based on the ambiguous narrative POV.

Tyler Perry (who I hadn't really seen in a movie before, I think) was actually really excellent as the lawyer. Later I read that he wouldn't have done the film if he had known what it was about. I think he was another stabilizing force in the narrative.

 

[Arctic Hysteria]

Tyler Perry (who I hadn't really seen in a movie before, I think) was actually really excellent as the lawyer. Later I read that he wouldn't have done the film if he had known what it was about. I think he was another stabilizing force in the narrative.

That Tyler Perry is a rich guy who makes terribly sappy movies about relationships and marriages, with only black actors and for black folks community. It's funny how he "wouldn't have done the film if he had known what it was about", while it is actually the one singular role he has done that makes people take him seriously.

 

[Totenkindly]

That Tyler Perry is a rich guy who makes terribly sappy movies about relationships and marriages, with only black actors and for black folks community. It's funny how he "wouldn't have done the film if he had known what it was about", while it is actually the one singular role he has done that makes people take him seriously.

Yeah, that was my impression of him through the grapevine / movie gossip, and so I was surprised at how well he nailed this character and made him likeable and competent.

 

[Riva]

Only 9 replies?

Wow I loved this movie. Absolutely loved it. I didn't even mind the drag; infact it didn't feel like a drag. I am not talking about the acting (I am still not much into acting and camera angles etc), I am purely talking about the script.

It's probably one of the best written movie plots I have seen in a year or more.

I'd recommend it to anyone. Okay not anyone - I have a friend who said the New Robocop movie was the best movie he has ever seen. That guy would hate it.

It's quite nice the way they manage to shift the viewers' perspective on whom to hate:
First we (I) know that the husband isn't a killer
Then I began to suspect him because of his affair and feel quite annoyed by him
Then because of the way he reacts to the cops you begin to realize that he is innocent and it was obviously someone else who has killed or kidnapped her
Then we see that the women is still alive and although I realized what that woman was doing was wrong, maybe he deserved a bit of torture
Meanwhile we begin to hate the media and the people who are blaming him; also we have to sympathize with her a bit for having such a terrible mother/parents. I also felt sorry for her for getting robbed
Then you see that she has done this before, so you want to bitch to get caught
and then the then .........

Anyway, although it would have been a bit cliche if she got caught in the end and I would have felt a bit bad if she got caught after all her planning, there is a part that sits very uncomfortably in the back of my head for the way it ended. Those two poor men.

Is it just me or movies taken from novels (or even comics) are much better than from a script to a movie???

I believe the Batman trilology and X-men Days from the future past (although edited for have-more-famous-stars-in-the-movie reason) are also from Comics? They rocked and that is why I included comics above.

 

[Riva]

Hollywood please make movies with better scripts than spending more money on graphics and 3D.

Get a few famous actors if you want to sell it. That seems to work all the time.

Edit -

I was half expecting Jennifer and Arctic to have watched the movie and liked it. Pinky swear.

I love movies where a nihilistic sick character attempts to destroy a pathetic yet likable protagonist, leaving audience disturbed, exposed and uncomfortable.

^ Agreed Arctic agreed. I don't recall the names but I know I have seen one or two movies like that before.

 

[Axwell]

I never read the book (not my sort of book) but I enjoyed the movie. Good performances from Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck and Tyler Perry and the guy from how I met your mother I really liked the ending to, rosamund was genuinely scary.

 

[Riva]

I never read the book (not my sort of book) but I enjoyed the movie. Good performances from Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck and Tyler Perry and the guy from how I met your mother I really liked the ending to, rosamund was genuinely scary.

Didn't you want some high tension drama at the end? There is something about elaborate plot that makes people want to ALMOST see succeed no matter how cruel/unethical it is. And nothing like these elaborate plots getting caught at the end. These kinds of drama are great because you (atleast I) want the evil-protagonist to become good/anti-heroic.

I think House of Cards is a good example for that sort of tension - where you want the bad guy (Frank) to succeed.
The Fargo TV show - where you want the bad guy/petty guy (Lester) to fail.

 

[Totenkindly]

The guy from "When I Met your Mother?"
Don't you mean the guy from "Doogie Howser, MD?" Or "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog?"

I was half expecting Jennifer and Arctic to have watched the movie and liked it. Pinky swear.

I love movies where a nihilistic sick character attempts to destroy a pathetic yet likable protagonist, leaving audience disturbed, exposed and uncomfortable.

I liked it for other reasons.

 

[Riva]

^ Not going to tell us these reasons?

 

[Totenkindly]

I already stated stuff in the thread and quoted my off-site review:
https://whatjennysaw.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/gone-girl/

Part of it resonated because I was heavily invested in following the Laci Peterson murder as it was unfolding. A lot of the story here was cribbed from that case (aside from Laci of course actually being murdered and later found). So I had a lot of familiarity with where some of the storyline was going.

The mid-movie twist, I didn't enjoy at first, it made the story different than I had been led to believe; but then once I committed to it and tracked it, that was interesting in itself, as you can be a manipulator but sometimes you get caught up in your own manipulations and then need a way to extract yourself. The resolution was simple and obvious in hindsight... but very very cold.

Mostly I liked having unreliable narrators + a movie where the media itself was yet another character. And while Nancy Grace is a caricature on TV, the caricature of her in the movie developed a little depth by brazenly revealing she knows what she is doing (rather than being oblivious) and thus cannily playing things in a way to accomplish her goals.

This is mainly a movie about spin. Everyone is spinning a story... and even the spinners are being spun by others. Does anyone actually ever know the truth?

Of course, Rosamund Pike offered an amazing performance.

 

[Axwell]

Didn't you want some high tension drama at the end? There is something about elaborate plot that makes people want to ALMOST see succeed no matter how cruel/unethical it is. And nothing like these elaborate plots getting caught at the end. These kinds of drama are great because you (atleast I) want the evil-protagonist to become good/anti-heroic.

I think House of Cards is a good example for that sort of tension - where you want the bad guy (Frank) to succeed.
The Fargo TV show - where you want the bad guy/petty guy (Lester) to fail.

I did want to see more to the ending as the ending was quite abrupt. I really wanted to see how the relationship developed further between affleck and pike.

I haven't watched House of Cards yet, is it good?

The guy from "When I Met your Mother?"
Don't you mean the guy from "Doogie Howser, MD?" Or "Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog?"












I liked it for other reasons.

I thought it was How I Met your Mother

I would also like to know the reasons!

 

[Totenkindly]

I think House of Cards is excellent ... and it's filmed right here in Baltimore where I live.

I mean, I'm not usually into the "political intrigue" stuff as much, but the acting was very good and it's interesting to watch Frank manipulate the system and his myriad relationships as if it were all one huge strategy game.

And of course, players come on the board... and can also leave quite abruptly. Some of the best moments were being shocked to realize certain characters were even more tainted than you realized.

 

[Riva]

Thank you Jennifer for that. I didn't know it was partly inspired from a real event.

I was shocked by the plot twist. For me it was a pleasant shock. However, it was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a movie based on media reactions and how people react. And maybe a plot twist at the end where the real killer is revealed.

I think that would have been nice too. However, it might have become a drag.

I haven't watched House of Cards yet, is it good?

Yesss!

I did want to see more to the ending as the ending was quite abrupt. I really wanted to see how the relationship developed further between affleck and pike.

ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME????????

What were you expecting. Some mind game playing, manipulative, sociopath couple who try to incriminate each other or kill each other's loved ones one by one get hurt each other but staying together for appearance sake?

You've got problems dude.

 

[Nicodemus]

Some Sri Lankan guy tagged me, perhaps to learn whether I liked the film. I did. Yes, I did. I admired her meticulousness, although she is obviously a pretty sick bitch.