Gone Girl (Fincher)

[Rowland]

I walked out of this with very mixed but generally positive thoughts. After reading all sorts of thought-provoking reviews and think-pieces, I'm convinced that I'm either overrating or underrating it. Sonuvabitch. I agree with Wats however that for all the layers one can read into this, my impression is that it simply plays for most of the general audience as "That bitch cray."

[Henry Gale]

Whoa, this thread is Spoiler City. Pretty glad I didn't happen to come back in here after Izzy and Ezee's brief posts.

But yeah, pretty much adored this. Never read the book, so going in and taking it as it is in this way for the first time, I found to be just incredibly strong, no-frills, and often virtuously effective storytelling (even credit to Flynn and Fincher in this sense). It might not be my favourite Fincher film (which I'm not sure of anyway), but it's likely the film of his that most sums up what I love about him as a filmmaker.

There are moments here that aren't overtly stylized or heightened with their emotions that still pack a punch unlike anything in the biggest moments of other thrillers. I was going to say "thrillers like this", but realized how empty a category that is, in the very best way.

I'll have some more thoughts later, because I'm still on a pretty big high from this after seeing it last night, but I really think it's pretty amazing what this manages to do, with its marketing being a major component and asset to that too.

Easily four stars and a low to mid-range 9 out of 10. Somehow just escapes my Top 5 of the year at this point, which says more about how strongly this year is coming together than the film itself.