David Fincher's "Gone Girl"

Snake Plisken · 07-07-2014 8:29pm

This and Intersteller are the only two movies I'm going to go to see in the cinema this year, looks great! Not sure if I should read the book or not before seeing this?

Jimdagym · 09-07-2014 3:06am

I read the book after seeing the first trailer. Loved it. Cant wait for this.

All I will say to people is dont make up your mind on the basis of the trailers. Its a hard one to trailer well.

Snake Plisken · 13-07-2014 11:32pm

Picked up the book on the kindle for $1.69 yesterday and I'm nearly finished it now great read and a bargain at that price!

Birneybau · 14-07-2014 12:16am

For those that have read the book, I really hope Fincher changes the end because it was f'ing awful.

orchidsrpretty · 14-07-2014 12:31am

Really looking forwRd to this. Read the book when it was released. Can't 100% remember the ending but can remember being a bit disappointed when finished. Would be a better twist if they changed the ending.

ArthurG · 14-07-2014 9:18am

Jimdagym wrote: »

All I will say to people is dont make up your mind on the basis of the trailers. Its a hard one to trailer well.

However you could make your mind up based on the source material (the book), which was woeful!

Snake Plisken · 14-07-2014 1:13pm

Birneybau wrote: »

For those that have read the book, I really hope Fincher changes the end because it was f'ing awful.

Yeah I got to the end last night waiting for a great ending, but I finished it feeling cheated and asking is that it? Hopefully the 3rd act had been re-written for the movie so hope it's a more satisfactory ending then the book!

JP Liz V1 · 29-09-2014 10:28pm

Pike seems to getting great reviews for her role here, even Oscar talk for her, she could surprise us all

FlyingIrishMan · 30-09-2014 11:56pm

Got to see this tonight at an advanced screening. It was brilliant, acting was great (though I couldn't see NPH as anything other than Barney from HIMYM). It was definitely a Fincher movie. I think the ending will divide people. I liked it, thought it was fitting but I'd understand any complaints.

Loughc · 01-10-2014 10:29am

FlyingIrishMan wrote: »

Got to see this tonight at an advanced screening. It was brilliant, acting was great (though I couldn't see NPH as anything other than Barney from HIMYM). It was definitely a Fincher movie. I think the ending will divide people. I liked it, thought it was fitting but I'd understand any complaints.

I saw it last night myself, it's brilliant!

It's well paced out, flows like the novel. The ending is perfect, it worked for me too. Acting is top notch, Affleck really has a great performance in it. The dark humour in the film is surprisly plentiful and it really works. All around great film, can't say much more until people see it.

9/10

kryogen · 01-10-2014 11:47am

Affleck has always had the talent, just made some shocking choices, no worries about him but Pike I will be surprised if her performance doesn't irritate me. I will see it though as Fincher is a director I like and I haven't seen a trailer as I don't want to spoiler it but it sounds interesting enough, not a big cinema goer these days, find there is little worth actually spending the money on but I make an exception now and then

FlyingIrishMan · 01-10-2014 12:47pm

Loughc wrote: »

I saw it last night myself, it's brilliant!

It's well paced out, flows like the novel. The ending is perfect, it worked for me too. Acting is top notch, Affleck really has a great performance in it. The dark humour in the film is surprisly plentiful and it really works. All around great film, can't say much more until people see it.

9/10

The humour in it was fantastic. I wasn't expecting so much of it either, but it really made me like the film a whole lot more.

Telecaster58 · 01-10-2014 1:09pm

I watched it last night, and didn't know what to make of it. I may have to watch it again.
It is only on reflection that I think perhaps it is better than I first thought. Certain scenes came back to me which helps explain some of the narrative points. Performance-wise, it is very good and there are no bum notes in casting. Fincher as usual does a very professional job. Oddly enough, I came out of Zodiac feeling the same way and that film has really grown on me and rewards repeated viewing

GBXI · 02-10-2014 10:43am

Saw it last night as well in the Savoy. Thought it was absolutely brilliant. Had read the end of a couple of critic reviews on rte.ie and entertainment.ie and both only gave it 3/5 stars so I wasn't expecting it to be as good. To be honest, I'm not sure what movie they were watching!

Pike is incredible in it, and the humour is excellent. Flows very well which I hadn't expected. Must read the book, I'd say it's very good.

Sad Professor · 02-10-2014 4:04pm

It’s awesome. One of Fincher’s best.

If Fight Club was Fincher’s attack on consumerism and alpha-male douchebaggery, then Gone Girl is his attack on marriage and long-term relationships. Although attack might be putting it lightly. It’s more like a hand-grenade, which Fincher lobs with enormous glee.

Ormus · 02-10-2014 5:28pm

Awful book

johnny_ultimate · 02-10-2014 6:49pm

Fincher knocked this out of the park.

Gone Girl is put together like a dream. Fincher's by now trademark slick, sombre visual style is put to great use, and capably backed by Reznor's subtle but atmospheric soundtrack work. Each major edit in the film packs not only an aesthetic punch (and that they do, with fantastically effective crash cuts) but narrative ones too. It's a film that feels truly alive and uneasy, keen to keep the viewer paying total attention. It plays with the story's fractured structure, chronological shifts and multiple viewpoints in an immensely satisfying way. It is both serious and ridiculous, funny and probing - a weird hybrid few filmmakers could manage so expertly.

Right from the off - with a cheekily disorientating title sequence with shots that last a glorious couple of microseconds too few - the atmosphere is urgent and unsettled, and doesn't let up,

right through to its admirably (if rushed) cynical conclusion.

Fincher embraces the cruelty and black humour of the tale wholeheartedly (as well as the playfully viscious attacks on the mainstream media, marriage and various other all-American institutions), and the whole thing is simply a deliciously pulpy thriller that's compulsive even when some of the reveals are well signposted (although having not read the book, there's some great surprises). Heck, the sheer skill of the filmmaking and storytelling will likely make a rewatch just as enjoyable. It will surely help that several of the big setpieces are realised with such gusto.

I've said it in a few threads before, but Rosamund Pike is IMO something of a charisma vacuum.

I'd argue that works to Gone Girl's benefit, because her naturally cold demeanour both allows her to be a subtly unconvincing narrator for the first half of the film, and then an utter psychopath in the second. Smart casting.

Basically a joy to watch, and it is a case of a director's style perfectly complementing the material. This could easily have been a mess in less capable hands, but David Fincher makes it his own.

FlashR2D2 · 02-10-2014 7:32pm

GBXI wrote: »

Had read the end of a couple of critic reviews on rte.ie and entertainment.ie and both only gave it 3/5 stars so I wasn't expecting it to be as good..

When I think of Rte and entertainment.ie film critics I think of lots of non offensive colours, a wide eyed floaty feeling, the inside of an empty echoing head and relaxing snoozy snoozy dream time. Ahhhh!

.....You need to find yourself a more serious film critic.

cloud493 · 02-10-2014 9:44pm

Well I loved it. Unmitigated success right there;

Barlett · 02-10-2014 11:47pm

Bit underwhelmed, but if you've never read the book, the story is quite different from the norm so you will find it interesting.

LuckyLloyd · 03-10-2014 12:20am

Brilliant, brilliant!!

Thoroughly entertained me from start to finish. Hadn't read the book so didn't know the story - some very effective plotting to put it mildly.

Yarf Yarf · 03-10-2014 2:53pm

I felt quite underwhelmed by it. It deals way too much in extremes. Whether it's swinging between total lies and total truth or creating plot twists that either reinforce everything we already knew and felt or totally turn everything on its head, it all feels like an onslaught of dueling dichotomies, which grows extremely tiresome and tiring by the end. Speaking of the ending, it felt quite rushed and deeply cynical, and just sort of peters out really. I wasn't keen in general on the last 20-30 minutes.

I also thought it was confused in its message. One minute it's a critique of media sensationalism, then it's offering up the exact same kind of sensationalism it's supposedly critical of, then the next minute it's a full-blown attack on marriage and relationships. It didn't feel like a particularly original or even fleshed out reflection on any of the issues it touches on.

I thought Rosamund Pike was excellent in her role. She knocks it out of the park in several scenes. The woman playing the cop (her name escapes me) is very good too. Ben Affleck, on the other hand, I felt left a lot to be desired. I got the feeling that we were supposed to be suspicious of him early on, but I wasn't really getting that. It also seemed that we were supposed to really dislike his character. I wasn't picking up any of that from his performance either. It wasn't that I liked his character, I just felt wholly indifferent to him.

The aesthetic is classic Fincher - dark, moody, slick. It's good in some ways, and in others, not so great. The setting of the interlude involving Neil Patrick Harris felt incredibly sterile and utterly frictionless. There isn't a single hair on anyone's head out of place throughout the film. Maybe that's appealing on some level and suits the sort of 'keeping up appearances' vibe, but everything just looks too picture perfect to me even when you're fully past the point of understanding how imperfect everything actually is.

Felt uncertain about the gender issues going on. It seems to be striving to appeal to both strident feminists and misogynists in equal measure.

I'd wonder about the quality of the source material. I haven't read the book, but it seems like your typical trashy potboiler and I imagine Fincher may have taken it on in the belief that he could improve upon it, similar to what Kubrick used to do. Except Fincher is not a patch on Kubrick.

It just feels like there's a lot going on, but at the same time, nothing really being said. It's a thriller that wants to be more than that, but isn't quite getting there.

I'd say it's good, not great.

duckysauce · 03-10-2014 7:17pm

Saw it today and loved it , very funny in places .

catallus · 03-10-2014 8:44pm

I enjoyed it. Thought it could have been shorter but I liked it all the same,

a few shocking scenes very nicely done. Poor NPH!!!! :pac:

ktulu123 · 03-10-2014 10:00pm

Just back from it, fantastic film! Was paced very well, great acting & some nice dark humor too. I liked the ending also

krudler · 04-10-2014 12:47am

Loved it. Darkly funny throughout, some brilliant performances and it never lets itself get bogged down in what you think it's about. I like the meandering messages behind everything. And the

reveal that she plans it then the whole thing with NPH was brilliantly done, especially the box cutter scene, fantastic editing and score in that

JP Liz V1 · 04-10-2014 12:55am

I can finally see that Tyler Perry can act and is much more than Madea

krudler · 04-10-2014 1:11am

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

I can finally see that Tyler Perry can act and is much more than Madea

He was really good in it, I absolutely despise his Madea films. On paper it looked like a really poor cast, Tyler Perry and Rosamund Pike? but they gave two of the best turns.

I did like how

you go from rooting for one of them to the other, neither are good people but you can sympathise with both. Well not so much Pike after she goes full on batsh1t crazy but definitely earlier on

Betty Bloggs · 04-10-2014 1:33am

I read the book and thought the film was done pretty well. Enjoyed it, and thought the lead actress Pike was a good choice. I don't know much of her other work but felt she suited the role well.

I think Carrie Coon who played Margo was possibly the best actress in it though! First time I saw her was in The Leftovers and I really liked her in that too.
She's a very good actress imo.

Eeden · 04-10-2014 1:40am

I haven't read any of the spoilers here, because I've heard that the ending might be different from the book?

I really didn't like the book at all (read it twice to be sure), but I'm looking forward to seeing the film, because of the cast, director, etc.

David Fincher's "Gone Girl"

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