The "Gone Girl" Discussion Thread [SPOILERS]

[MartyMcFly]

Movie was very dope. What if has to say about marriage and our society in general. We hate people then love them and we never let a story go. We sensationalize everything and always look for a bad guy and we are quick to jump to conclusions. And that marriage can be a very cynical thing and such an easy union to prevent. I normally don't like when a movie manipulates me but I loved that this one did. According to this movie truth is subjective and we all remember the past the way we want to in order to provide answers as to our present or future. All of the performances were dope but Rosamund Pike was on fire. I'll be surprised if she doesn't get an Oscar nod.

I think the movie is saying more than "women are crazy" because that's too simple for a Fincher flick; its pointing to a larger idea about relationships and how we all are very capable of screwing them up or letting real life come between us and the people we care about. This is a flick that shows what happens to one of those fairy tale couples once "happily ever after" fades off the screen.


When nick says to her that he did love her but all they did was end up hating each other manipulating each other and resenting each other and Amy responds with "that's what marriage is," that sums up the entire movie.

 

[TooLazyToMakeUp1]

The last quarter of the movie had me terrified of the wife, as if she was going to

Spoiler

murk

him at any moment

The odd score also creeped me out

 

[TooLazyToMakeUp1]

Movie was very dope. What if has to say about marriage and our society in general. We hate people then love them and we never let a story go. We sensationalize everything and always look for a bad guy and we are quick to jump to conclusions. And that marriage can be a very cynical thing and such an easy union to prevent. I normally don't like when a movie manipulates me but I loved that this one did. According to this movie truth is subjective and we all remember the past the way we want to in order to provide answers as to our present or future. All of the performances were dope but Rosamund Pike was on fire. I'll be surprised if she doesn't get an Oscar nod.

I think the movie is saying more than "women are crazy" because that's too simple for a Fincher flick; its pointing to a larger idea about relationships and how we all are very capable of screwing them up or letting real life come between us and the people we care about. This is a flick that shows one of those fairy tale couples once "happily ever after" fades off the screen.


When nick says to her that he did love her but all they did was end up hating each other manipulating each other and resenting each other and Amy responds with "that's what marriage is" that sums up the entire movie.

I agree, but I think it was clear that she was screwed up waaay before marriage, given her incidents with the other men from the past. Nick just surprised her with what he did and she went full loony. She was a chameleon

 

[NobodyReally]

Movie was very dope. What if has to say about marriage and our society in general. We hate people then love them and we never let a story go. We sensationalize everything and always look for a bad guy and we are quick to jump to conclusions. And that marriage can be a very cynical thing and such an easy union to prevent. I normally don't like when a movie manipulates me but I loved that this one did. According to this movitwere dope but Rosamund Pike was on fire. I'll be surprised if she doesn't get an Oscar nod.

I think the movie is saying more than "women are crazy" because that's too simple for a Fincher flick; its pointing to a larger idea about relationships and how we all are very capable of screwing them up or letting real life come between us and the people we care about. This is a flick that shows one of those fairy tale couples once "happily ever after" fades off the screen.

When nick says to her that he did love her but all they did was end up hating each other manipulating each other and resenting each other and Amy responds with "that's what marriage is" that sums up the entire movie.

Great review! I agree with everything except for Pike's performance. Something was off. Maybe I'm just stuck on my vision of Amy though. I have trouble in general separating books from movies. But your analysis perfectly sums up what I think Flynn and Fincher were trying convey.

 

[MartyMcFly]

I agree, but I think it was clear that she was screwed up waaay before marriage, given her incidents with the other men from the past. Nick just surprised her with what he did and she went full loony. She was a chameleon

Oh yeah she was screwed up. Complete psycho. But they were both putting on fronts and that's the larger point: the lies we tell ourselves and our friends/significant others in order to convince ourselves of something else or make us into something we aren't

 

[TooLazyToMakeUp1]

Kinda OT: Is the house in the woods the same one from Hitchcock's North by Northwest ?

 

[luckyse7enz]

Great film. Had me intrigued the entire time and on edge from the middle to the end. Best film I've seen in theaters in a while.

This is definitely "Get Married, Brehs: The Movie" and I left the theater with my friend (divorced female) like :lupegarvey: Haven't been that unsettled about an ending in forever. What a mindfukk.

Dudes were in the bathroom afterward joking about how we should be considering wearing mini-cams when we're around women.

I didn't read the book and I avoided looking more into the plot because I only knew that there'd be twists, so I was suspicious the entire time. It makes me wonder if I'll be the only one that thought:

Spoiler

....that Margot (the twin sister didn't exist or was just a figment of Nick's imagination for part of the movie. This obviously wasn't the case, but it seemed like no one was acknowledging her outside of Nick for the first half of the movie. She had a very Tyler Durden/Bruce Willis (Sixth Sense) presence to me.

She'd only speak and get a response from Nick and she'd pop up, previously unnoticed, during stressful times. They'd always have dialogues when no one else was around, so I wasn't sure she really existed until they put her in the news report where she was flipping the camera off.

Don't know if that was by design to throw people off or if I was just reading too much into it because I didn't know what the twist would be.

 

[MartyMcFly]

Great film. Had me intrigued the entire time and on edge from the middle to the end. Best film I've seen in theaters in a while.

This is definitely "Get Married, Brehs: The Movie" and I left the theater with my friend (divorced female) like :lupegarvey: Haven't been that unsettled about an ending in forever. What a mindfukk.

Dudes were in the bathroom afterward joking about how we should be considering wearing mini-cams when we're around women.

I didn't read the book and I avoided looking more into the plot because I only knew that there'd be twists, so I was suspicious the entire time. It makes me wonder if I'll be the only one that thought:

Spoiler

....that Margot (the twin sister didn't exist or was just a figment of Nick's imagination for part of the movie. This obviously wasn't the case, but it seemed like no one was acknowledging her outside of Nick for the first half of the movie. She had a very Tyler Durden/Bruce Willis (Sixth Sense) presence to me.

She'd only speak and get a response from Nick and she'd pop up, previously unnoticed, during stressful times. They'd always have dialogues when no one else was around, so I wasn't sure she really existed until they put her in the news report where she was flipping the camera off.

Don't know if that was by design to throw people off or if I was just reading too much into it because I didn't know what the twist would be.

I think you're reading too much into that one breh. There's a lot of unreliable narrator in the movie but that's not a figment of anyone's imagination

 

[gluvnast]

Movie was very dope. What if has to say about marriage and our society in general. We hate people then love them and we never let a story go. We sensationalize everything and always look for a bad guy and we are quick to jump to conclusions. And that marriage can be a very cynical thing and such an easy union to prevent. I normally don't like when a movie manipulates me but I loved that this one did. According to this movie truth is subjective and we all remember the past the way we want to in order to provide answers as to our present or future. All of the performances were dope but Rosamund Pike was on fire. I'll be surprised if she doesn't get an Oscar nod.

I think the movie is saying more than "women are crazy" because that's too simple for a Fincher flick; its pointing to a larger idea about relationships and how we all are very capable of screwing them up or letting real life come between us and the people we care about. This is a flick that shows one of those fairy tale couples once "happily ever after" fades off the screen.


When nick says to her that he did love her but all they did was end up hating each other manipulating each other and resenting each other and Amy responds with "that's what marriage is" that sums up the entire movie.

Precisely.

 

[gluvnast]

Great film. Had me intrigued the entire time and on edge from the middle to the end. Best film I've seen in theaters in a while.

This is definitely "Get Married, Brehs: The Movie" and I left the theater with my friend (divorced female) like :lupegarvey: Haven't been that unsettled about an ending in forever. What a mindfukk.

Dudes were in the bathroom afterward joking about how we should be considering wearing mini-cams when we're around women.

I didn't read the book and I avoided looking more into the plot because I only knew that there'd be twists, so I was suspicious the entire time. It makes me wonder if I'll be the only one that thought:

Spoiler

....that Margot (the twin sister didn't exist or was just a figment of Nick's imagination for part of the movie. This obviously wasn't the case, but it seemed like no one was acknowledging her outside of Nick for the first half of the movie. She had a very Tyler Durden/Bruce Willis (Sixth Sense) presence to me.

She'd only speak and get a response from Nick and she'd pop up, previously unnoticed, during stressful times. They'd always have dialogues when no one else was around, so I wasn't sure she really existed until they put her in the news report where she was flipping the camera off.

Don't know if that was by design to throw people off or if I was just reading too much into it because I didn't know what the twist would be.

I never really thought of that and it'll make the movie even more better had that been the case. I DID believe, however, that Margot was Nick's inner conscience but in physical form, but I never took her not being real, which in the film it exposes her as a real person anyway so it's a moot point. But it was pointed by the end that she's bonded to him no matter what as being the one that keeps him grounded.

 

[MartyMcFly]

It's crazy to think that a movie that says "we're all screwed up and will end up living a lie" could potentially be a best picture nominee. The academy normally doesn't go for cynical flicks especially to win but it would be a pleasant surprise if/when it gets some love during awards season

 

[The_King_of_Everything]

This movie was crazy as shyt

 

[luckyse7enz]

I never really thought of that and it'll make the movie even more better had that been the case. I DID believe, however, that Margot was Nick's inner conscience but in physical form, but I never took her not being real, which in the film it exposes her as a real person anyway so it's a moot point. But it was pointed by the end that she's bonded to him no matter what as being the one that keeps him grounded.

Yeah, I just wonder if she was filmed that way on purpose to make people suspicious, like "People who didn't read the book will expect something Durden-esque from David Fincher so let's fukk with them a tiny bit before we really swerve them."

 

[TheGodling]

I'm conflicted about this movie, and will for that reason call it 'alright'. That's not to say it's just alright because I'd say for the most part the movie works brilliantly. Except for the times it doesn't, and it hurts the movie. For one thing, I would've been in love with the ending if they had sold me on it. The movie did not. Even though all the ingredients are there. The obvious undertone about people's obsession with playing the part society wants to see them in, rather than being true to who they are. The whole thing about Nick's dream of becoming a father being such a big motivator for his decision to stay with her in the end. But the movie failed to sell me on Nick wanting to be a father so bad because he was a sack of lies when he told that to his sister, so I didn't buy it and was surprised to see I apparently had to buy it at the end. The same goes for the undertone, we see Nick playing the role because he needs to for the media, and in the end, to draw Amy back. But the movie doesn't sell me on Nick actually accepting to be that person for her. Obviously because she's crazy and he's dead scared of her, but that brings us back to the point that there's no other reason the movie can make me buy him sticking with her. Perhaps if they had shown Nick to be a little more crazier, a little more attracted to the fact his wife did all this for him, I could've bought it. I would've bought it, but as it is now, I just can't.

And in there lies another issue I have with the movie, which is Fincher's clinical direction. I'd say for a dark comedy/thriller Fincher hits all the right beats because he knows his craft, but he was dangerously close to missing the point completely in some cases because stylistically he refused to embrace the craziness. The cold style worked when it's still a mystery of whether he killed his wife or not. When the mid-turn twist happens and things get crazier, the cold style starts to work against it. In fact, during the scenes of Amy at her most batshyt, it only seemed as if the Reznor/Ross score addressed the insanity of it all because tonally Fincher didn't shoot it any different than the rest of the movie. I found it very noticeable too during the actual murder scene which looked (deliberately?) sloppily edited, almost as if Fincher realized only in the editing room that he filmed it too straight and it needed to be more raw. It left me with the same feeling I had after his The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo remake, that Fincher is still a man who's attracted to the dark edges of mankind, but slowly getting less able to convey that on screen.

 

[TheGodling]

Oh yeah, and for all the praise Pike gets (she was excellent), I was more impressed by the actress who played the sister. I don't know if it was because I was already expecting it from Pike, but she filled that role in perfectly. I tell you right now, she's the only c00n I'll ever hang with (her name is Carrie c00n).

Also, I'm surprised no one (until now) has made this yet: