Gone Girl — Page 3

I enjoyed the movie much more than the book. I think a few days with these somewhat awful people was a bit much for me to stew in, but a couple of hours in the theater was about perfect.

Really well cast, all way around, and the leads were fantastic. Pike in particular scared the crap out of me, and I would always have a lock on my bedroom door!

Wow. I had some problems with the movie too (as I did with the book, though on balance I enjoyed both) but that piece, Roscoe, seems to completely ignore that Amy's diary is - as we learn in both the book and the movie - an almost complete fabrication.

And this is just plain wrong: "The film provides an important clue to its stance on the Nick versus Amy debate. In the novel, Nick’s sister, Margo, provides a crucial sounding board. But the Gone Girl film uses Margo not just in that capacity, but also as a surrogate for the audience, directing our sympathies. As Margo begins to question her twin brother’s innocence, the viewer does the same. How much do we know about Nick, anyway? But as the plot slowly exonerates him of Amy’s murder, Margo eventually comes back to Team Nick as her initial supposition is proved right: Amy is just another bitch."

The book and the novel are completely indistinguishable with respect to Go's doubts, discoveries and sympathies.

Updated On: 10/9/14 at 02:36 PM

I'm not sure, Roscoe. I felt exactly the same about both of these people in both the book and the movie. What exactly makes movie Nick more sympathetic than book Nick? The facts on paper and on the screen seem exactly the same to me.

Is it just that Affleck is a likable guy? I didn't imagine Nick any different in fact or personality in my reading.

In addition, the book makes it clear that you don't have to take on faith that Amy's diary is full of lies. Amy, in non-diary mode, is completely candid about exactly who she is and about how much she's lied in her diary.

Updated On: 10/9/14 at 03:46 PM

I don't think that Nick is a sympathetic character. Yes he is overtly victimized by Amy, and she's a sociopath of one's nightmares. But Nick is himself completely amoral. And he's a great manipulator.

The final scene of him trapped in his rented McMansion petting a murderers head in bed is his reward for being an unconscionable human being. I think that Fincher and Affleck draw Nick in such a stoic and arid way that one could view him as a somewhat neutral character.

But his dialog and actions within that stoic approach reveals a borderline personality. He certainly isn't an Amy, but he does understand her a little too well.

It might be noted also that if anything in the book Amy is meaner than she is in the movie. In the book, Amy is even more of a serial terrorizer as she's made life a living hell not just for Tommy (in addition to maligning Desi) but also pathologically bullied one of her girlfriends whom she's lied about being her stalker.

I never rooted for Amy. Yeah, it was cute when she was explaining How She Did The Frameup, the contempt for her idiot neighbor was fun, but her insane devotion to destroying her husband's life pretty well put a stop to any rooting I might have done, and then when she cold-bloodedly killed Desi, well, that was that.

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That's curious to me, GoSmile. In both the book and film, Nick's calculations in the interview are understandable attempts to get Amy back so that he isn't convicted and potentially executed. Why should that be so hard to accept as something anyone, even a far more virtuous person, would do under the circumstances? Those lies seem a lot more defensible than some of his others, none of which - and here I agree with Roscoe - make him much of a villain.

Updated On: 10/9/14 at 06:01 PM

SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER The bigger laugh out loud moment for me was when she pulls up in the car, where all the tv people are, covered from head to toe in blood, and yells "I'm Alive." Or at least something like that. I mean really. I thought this was the movie that would never end. Just dragged and dragged. The performances were good. Somebody mentioned that it should have been longer.(???) I would not have been able to endure that torture.

"But Nick is himself completely amoral. And he's a great manipulator."

Is he, though? I've been "trapped" in a relationship before for a number of years and it turns you into someone you don't even recognize. Like how Amy talked about how he was turning her into someone she hates, I feel like the same was done to him. I just got out of the movie about an hour ago so I'm still processing it (and how brilliant I think it was), but his affair, while to the media was a horrible act, to someone who felt trapped in a bad relationship would be salvation.

I'm rambling as I process this. I might go back again this weekend to check it out, I think it deserves a second viewing.

"But Nick is himself completely amoral. And he's a great manipulator."

Sorry, not seeing that Nick's garden variety infidelities and general straight-guy assholishness really qualify him for being COMPLETELY AMORAL. That particular label only goes on one person in this film, and that's his homicidal wackjob wife Amy -- let's not forget that all she really had to do was just divorce her cheating dickhead husband (she's got the prenup, after all) but no, she decides to take months to frame her husband for her own (faked) murder, and then slaughters another man she's conned into coming to her rescue when her not-carefully-enough-laid plans go awry.

Nick's no saint. But he's Gandhi in comparison with his demented murderous bloodthirsty vengeful bitch-bride Amy.

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Updated On: 10/14/14 at 03:33 PM

A very interesting article, in that it completely lets Amy off the hook. Basically, it's all men's fault, or her parents' fault, or the institution of marriage's fault. Poor (homicidal sociopathic) Amy. The article mentions that she stages fake rape scenes, but never that she stages fake murder scenes, and even commits her own genuine murder, which she is able to manipulate into her own scenario of her own (entirely fake) victimization at the hands of men. Rotten evil dirty men.

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Updated On: 10/14/14 at 04:23 PM

"I guess I'm confused why it's so difficult for people to just come away with the conclusion that this bitch is cray."

Well, exactly. The weird dynamic whereby All Women GOOD and All Men BAD is really playing itself out here all over the place.

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Even if they portray her as a genius psycho, I thought he was in the wrong as much as her.

"As much as"?!?! Howso?

I disagree with pretty much everything that A.V. Club article has to say. I read the book and saw the film and I just feel it's trying to fish way too hard for its angle.

I do think the Nick of the novel was a bit less likable than the film, but nothing to the extent that he was a match for Amy or deserving of her particular brand of wrath. I think if you were to try and find a more evenly matched loathsome couple, The Piano more appropriately fits the bill (though I know most really like to simplify Hunter's character as the ultimate victim, conveniently removing all context from the narrative). What really set the Nick of the film apart from the novel for me was the casting of Affleck. I think he was fine, but the actor has a reputation of playing the GOOD GUY and this film really doesn't work hard to dispel that in any way. The casting of Amy worked so well because she's simply not as iconic an actress. An actor with less recognition or a broader range of characters probably would have done Nick some favors.

It's been a long time since I read the book, but I can't remember being disappointed by some rather large plot holes of the story's climactic peak and aftermath like I was in the film. The film left me with a raised eyebrow of skepticism whereas the book left me with a feeling of melancholy and defeat. I read her other books as well, but this really was the best of the three with Dark Places being somewhat forgettable and Sharp Objects incohesive.

I do remember the criticism of the book being "misogynistic" and finding it just as silly then as I do now. It's a disservice to the hard-working production team of Snapped on Oxygen.

Oh, and make no mistake...I HATE The Piano. Awful film. Awful story.

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Updated On: 10/14/14 at 04:40 PM