Gone Girl [DVD] [2014]

Gone Girl is one of those rare thrillers that grabs you from the opening scene and doesn’t let go until the very last moment. It’s a masterclass in suspense, with layer after layer of deception, manipulation, and psychological drama.The story follows the mysterious disappearance of Amy Dunne, and as the media frenzy builds, suspicion falls on her husband, Nick. But nothing in this film is what it seems. Just when you think you have it figured out, the plot takes a sharp turn that leaves you completely stunned.Rosamund Pike delivers a chilling, unforgettable performance, and Ben Affleck plays the perfect counterpart—flawed, suspicious, and strangely sympathetic. The direction by David Fincher is sharp, stylish, and perfectly matches the unsettling tone of the story.This isn’t just a mystery—it’s a dark exploration of relationships, identity, and the masks people wear. If you love psychological thrillers with smart writing and jaw-dropping twists, Gone Girl is absolutely worth watching. Just be ready to question everything.

Gillian Flynn has adapted her perfectly twisted psychological thriller into a perfectly twisted psychological film. And David Fincher puts the icing on the cake with his -- dare I say it -- perfect direction.Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike play Nick Dunne and Amy Elliott who meet at a New York cocktail party. As Amy herself describes their relationship: "We're so cute, I want to punch us in the face." You get some insight into Amy's psyche early on when we learn she is the inspiration for the "Amazing Amy" books her parents have written over the years. Only "Amazing Amy" does everything better than the real Amy does. The real Amy gives up the violin, "Amazing Amy" becomes a violin prodigy in the next book.Nick and Amy...both writers...marry and settle down to what looks like an idyllic life in New York. On their second anniversary, they are so in tune with each other that they both choose the same present.Then the recession hits. Amy and Nick lose their jobs, Amy's parents want her trust fund of almost a million dollars back, Nick's mother has cancer so they end up going back to Nick's hometown in Missouri. Consequently their carefully crafted facades splinter into a million pieces. What their relationship would have been like if the "bad stuff" hadn't happened is anyone's guess.North Carthage, Missouri. Boarded up stores. An empty mall now inhabited by the homeless and drug addicts. This is the transition "New York" Amy has to make. This is the town Nick once knew. With what's left of Amy's trust fund...Nick buys and co-owns "The Bar" with his twin sister "Go" [short for Margo] and Amy is left to adjust on her own. Then Amy goes missing. Anything else I add at this point would need a big "spoiler alert."The casting is letter perfect right down to Missi Pyle who delivers a wicked and well deserved skewering of Nancy Grace. Tyler Perry as defense attorney Tanner Bolt is so good that he transcends what could have been the comedy relief and shines. When he announces "Elvis is in Missouri" you're glad that he's there. His role is that of savior and he owns it.Carrie Coon who plays Nick's twin sister "Go" is terrific. As she goes from surprise to scorn to shock...she's Nick's rock and he knows it and Coon never misses a beat in her performance. Kim Dickens as Detective Rhonda Boney is exactly how I imagined "Boney" in the book which means she was perfectly cast. Small town detective who's smarter than anyone else in the room. Ben Affleck is handsome and big and as Nick wants to be liked by everyone but is [until the end] a cipher. Is he that dumb? Is he that smart? Is there any "there there"? Did Amy remake him or did he always have possibilities?But the movie belongs to Rosamund Pike. Her Amy is beautiful, smart, and cunning. She reminds me of a scalpel...all clean sharp edges which is why her dramatic and self-imposed change [tiny spoiler alert] is so effective. Fincher said he modeled Amy's character after Carolyn Bessette Kennedy [the late wife of JFK, Jr.] and how she reinvented herself to capture America's #1 bachelor. Pike said that she too studied Bessette...her style, carriage...and mystery. And like Bessette, how Amy carries it off!But look what having all those perfect books chronicling her not so perfect life has done to Amy.

Liked the movie

Stellar movie, not so stellar release for film fanatics.It's always difficult for me to know how to review a film on Amazon. Do I rate and review the film itself, do I talk about the technicals or do I merge the two and average out my overall review on both film and the final Bluray result? I decided to go with the latter.At well over 2 hours, you get your moneys worth by the films running time alone - of course as long as the film is, it doesn't actually feel that long. It's a great film, now a given assumption with David Fincher's name attached. I was uncertain about much of the performances early on but the reveals in the film helped me understand why I wasn't terribly convinced by the performances and made me realize just how great the performances actually were. What I thought were bad acting choices were actually brilliantly played, all deliberate and for good reason.So the film itself is wonderful. But how about the Bluray specifically? Well...The artwork looks nice, it comes in a semi-hard cardboard sleeve much like the packaging for Girl With The Dragon Tattoo or Social Network (but without a matte finish feel). Inside are three slim items:1) The Bluray case; a hard cardboard "book" that opens up with artwork printed inside and out and a single Bluray disk sitting on a clear plastic disc tray. No technical information printed anywhere on this "book".2) An 'Amazing Amy Tattle Tale" book, as in a real book. Solidly constructed, durable thick paper binding with semi thick paper pages. Big children's book style font and color illustrations, about 33 pages in total. Very well put together. I'm curious if the book has any clues about the movie inside it. Something subliminal in the text or hidden in the drawings? I don't know.3) Bonus: A sheet advertising the actual novel for purchase and a sheet explaining where to download the digital copy of the movie using a provided code.The Bluray disc itself:The menu is certainly exhilarating. It appears to be the middle of a news cast - a ticker at the bottom moves across with headlines, DOW/NASDAQ and weather info sit at the bottom right corner, a Fox logo on the bottom left and a headline about a missing Amy. It all sits over a pixelated shot of a lone boat on a river - the river water and clouds move but the boat and those on it appear to be static. The sounds of an old TV playing the broadcast is heard in the distance. As you let the menu play, brooding atmospheric music builds, and the sounds of a live police search increase - helicopters, people outside and the image on the TV begins to go static and flicker - flashing half-second images from the film.The options at top are "Play" "Set Up" "Search" and "Commentary" ("Search being the chapter menu/bookmarks - but what a great choice of wording for the chapter menu!)And herein lies my biggest problem. A David Fincher Bluray release without extensive behind the scenes features? This is unacceptable! We have been given a pattern in recent years, we've been given an expectation: when you buy a David Fincher fill, you are also buying film school in a box.This was not the case with his earlier work, certainly. Alien 3, The Game, Seven, on some level Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac all had releases that had little or no special features - The Game being the worst offender in my opinion for its lack of widescreen enhancement, misprints, bad film transfer and not a single special feature to be had. I hear an out of print version of Seven was not widescreen and had a bad transfer and no features either, but ANYWAY...In 2008, David Fincher's "Curious Case Of Benjamin Button" came out in America in one version only: a two disc special edition by Criterion packed to the gills with special features; and entire documentary on the making of the movie from planning, to shooting to post-production to releasing it in theaters.In 2010 we had "The Social Network" also released as a double disc set packed to the ceiling with special features; two audio commentary tracks that featured director, cast, and writer and another fascinating 1hr 30min documentary into the making of the film.2011 was "Girl With The Dragon Tattoo". This time a THREE disc set - the movie and special features on their own Bluray discs and a third disc, a DVD version of the movie. Again, the behind the scenes footage spanning over an hour.And during (and before) this time we had rereleases of Seven; now a two disc set with tons of features and commentary tracks, Panic Room now a three disc special edition with an insane amount of features and commentary tracks, Zodiac, now a two disc set with behind the scenes features and commentary tracks, and a Criterion rerelease of The Game with outstanding behind the scenes features and commentary tracks. Oh, Alien 3 got the special feature treatment on it's single Bluray release and the Alien Anthology release!So... in the last several years, every Fincher film, new release and rerelease have come out PACKED with special features. Surly Gone Girl would be released the same way. And yet sadly, it's not. I love the book that's included, I think it's an amazing touch and I can see a lot of work went into creating it. The story on the pages and pages themselves all crafted wonderfully. I don't want at all to take away from how cool that is.But this is a Bluray in an age of Netflix. I feel like people who choose to buy a film on Bluray over buying it on DVD or streaming it through Netflix/Amazon Prime/Hulu etc are people like me who want to know all there is to know about the movie. I buy the movie in hopes to see the movie itself AND how it was made. I feel like a book is great for a fan of the novel, to get to hold "the book that is in the book" as it were. But I'm buying a Bluray. I'm buying a movie. I'm interested mostly in the MOVIE side of "Gone Girl" not so much collecting things that the story is about.Again, I do love the book, it's a great addition and I welcome it with open arms. But it comes at the sacrifice of missing all the other stuff I was hoping for.The commentary is great, of course. Fincher jumps right on in as he always does - talking about "wig technology" and how they had to digitally futz with the opening shot to make the wig look more real. Before that he commented on the need for Regency to change their logo (don't do it, Regency!)But I wanted more. I hoped for more. And I fear they will release a "special edition" and I'll have to buy the movie a second time which I always found like a cheap money grabbing move from the studio.David Prior has been a DVD producer for Finchers films for a while. So I'm curious if he is behind this release as well and if so - what (if any) his plans are for releasing more behind the scenes features. I mean, c'mon - YouTube has a video showcasing all the green screen work that was done! Where did that come from?? It's not on the Bluray! It and all the other special features I expected, are, well......gone.