In "Gone Girl", Fincher, Flynn, Affleck And Pike Work Together To Draw A Complex Picture Of Hidden Desperation
A week after its American premiere, everything is Gone Girl and nothing hurts, as far as the critics are concerned. David Fincher’s latest has been receiving fantastic reviews on all counts – script, acting, direction. Here’s what the critics are saying.
_The Chicago Tribune’_s Michael Phillips heaped on the praise for what he calls “a stealthy, snake-like achievement.” Mostly – and this is never a surprise with a David Fincher movie – the film is lauded for its moody, atmospheric take on the already dark thriller by Gillian Flynn. Gone Girl is another prime example of Fincher using light, shadow and frame setup to convey a film’s moral message.
Read Rich Cline's review for Contactmusic here.
Here, “actors are placed precisely against a window, or in shadows surrounded by low-wattage electric light sources. It's all deliberate. Fincher and cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, shooting digitally, address moral rot through direct means so that the guilty consciences and hidden agendas of the characters are made manifest.”
Watch the Gone Girl trailer below.
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While some critics have had gripes with Affleck’s acting in particular, most agree that his role as Nick Dunne, the deeply unlikable and therefore deeply suspicious husband of a missing woman, is a career-defining performance. In fact, the whole cast gets points for acting skills. According to The Verge’s Ross Miller, “[b]oth Affleck and Pike give incredibly nuanced performances, each tasked with portraying multiple facades at various times. Second to them would be Tyler Perry and Carrie Coon as Nick's attorney and twin sister, respectively…”