It’s difficult to write this piece about Gone Girl simply because I don’t know where to start. A good place would be to state that Gone Girl is a good film. I feel like this gets lost in all of the debate about this film – no one seems to really give it the credit it deserves. It is a good film made by a criminally overlooked director, whose career is remarkably consistent. When I think about who my favourite working directors are, I’d probably not even mention David Fincher – but this guy made Fight Club, Seven and (probably my favourite of them all) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; So it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that Gone Girl is a good film.
Gone Girl is also an extremely uncomfortable film – for those that have read the book, this will not come as a surprise. To be honest, I don’t know if the discomfort comes from the film (or book) itself or if I projected most of it onto the film. I watched this with my wife (a huge mistake) and it is disturbing how many qualities she shares with Rosemund Pike’s Amy – they’re mostly positive qualities (Full disclosure: my wife edits this blog). She has the look of Amy, she’s super smart and is scarily organised. She has lists for EVERYTHING – she probably has lists for which lists she needs to make. I’m basically trying to say that I didn’t like how much Amy reminded me of Mrs Bear. And then I thought about Pike’s Amy, is she any different to the other film psychopaths that have littered our screens? Yes she is. She’s a she. Try as I might, I can’t pin-point another effective female villain that has shaken me to my core like Amy has. Sharon Stone from basic instinct is a great shout – but with her it was more to do with sex rather than her smarts. Amy is terrifying because she is smarter than everyone. And she gets away with it.
To be fair, Rosemund Pike deserves every credit for her performance here. It is very difficult to concentrate on anyone else when she is on the screen and that isn’t to say that Ben Affleck and co are bad – they’re not at all. At the end of the day – I simply found Amy terrifying. Genuinely. Somewhere between reading the book and watching the film I had to ask myself whether all women had an Amy in them. And, shit, did I marry one?
(You can find more of my musing over at Chocolate Teddy Films.)
Just a normal everyday bloke writing about films.