Based on Gillian Flynn’s novel, Gone Girl is the story of Nick, a man whose wife Amy goes missing on the morning of their fifth anniversary. As the media coverage grows larger, more and more people begin to start asking the question: did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
In a sense, Gone Girl is a film of three differing parts with three vastly different tones. Masterfully done, each of these shifts hits their mark with accuracy. During the film, it may be easy to think that the shifts are awkward. Moving from one to the other one may feel as though all of the suspense has been lost with certain information revealed or a different character being focused on. However, it’s important to look at the big picture and consider that each act has a great deal of importance within its relationship to the others, not just in transition but in what they mean when juxtaposed. The resulting product creates an absolutely perfect progression of narrative. While it may be hard to notice initially, the three act structure is flawless.
The film consistently works to establish the characters of the film and does so with razor sharp dialogue that says exactly what it needs to say. Every line feels precise and deliberate and the characters that they create are likable, interesting, and humanly flawed in equal measure. Naturally, it also crafts a brooding discomfort over the horizon as we begin to feel that all is not right. Set in a rather stagnant portrait of Missouri life, the film sees how Nick hopelessly start to realize that the evidence against him is overwhelming; and using a nerve-rackingly suspenseful pace, the mystery starts to unravel before our eyes.
All the while, we also receive an initially heart-warming glimpse into Nick and Amy’s relationship from the very beginning narrated by Amy in the form of diary entries. Using blissful and comfortingly serene music score and ethereal photography, these intercut scenes develop the characters even further and give an idea of the nature of their relationship as they fall in love and subsequently face hardships both internal and external. As their relationship becomes more volatile in the past, Nick’s race against the media becomes equally tense and explosive. By the end, it’s almost as if you were catapulted out of a nightmare only to find yourself in an even worse one.
At some points, many would feel that all suspense is lost, but it doesn’t take long to ramp up into high gear again. In the third act, it’s all about visual storytelling and brilliant use of music to shake you to your very core. To use the word tense is a vast understatement. We’re lead slowly but surely into an atmosphere of pure, unadulterated dread. The crawling under your skin that you felt during the first scenes becomes a harsh reality as the tone becomes calmly menacing and completely horrifying. The hopelessness that seemed bad initially is taken to unnatural levels.
In the end, David Fincher has crafted a film that excels in all imaginable ways to create unrelenting suspense, fear and intrigue. Not only is this pulled off, but the characters are incredibly developed and genuinely human, all of which rounds out to make a near perfect film.