Gone Girl

Gone Girl—Directed by David Fincher/starring Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, with Emily Ratajkowski, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry/novel and screenplay written by Gillian Flynn/rated R/ 2hrs 30min

Bifocal Reviews by Ageless1der Barbara Rich & The Other Guy

(BR) This film’s take on the gripping novel by Gillian Flynn translates as just as engaging--with all the twists and turns of the original--to keep the audience guessing throughout the movie. Kudos to Rosamund Pike who is very convincing in her role as the missing wife of Ben Affleck. Clue cards are conveniently left, and these, in addition to a handwritten diary help to solve the mystery at the core of the story, but this film is more about a marriage than anything else. Both leading roles are constantly changing because of their mood swings. Getting into the heads of these two main characters is a challenge. Carrie Coon is impressive as the twin sister who stays loyal, in spite of the odds, in supporting her brother, Ben Affleck’s claim of innocence. The other supporting roles were adequate. This is one movie that the story is greater than the performers, which has not been the case with most of the films this year, where the actors outshined the stories. I will not be accused of popping spoilers to ruin this movie, for you if you haven’t seen it yet or haven’t read the book…so I will quit here.  The movie is a little long and the ending, I understand, is different from the book, but definitely worth viewing. For me, this one is worth 3 ½ binoculars.

 (OG) It’s not a new thing to try and posit a completely preposterous scenario in a novel then stick to your storytelling guns come Hell or high water. I’ve been accused of jumping on the “too many twists” bandwagon, myself from time to time; this tends to make a story a little hard to follow, though. Not the case here, as the story is easy to follow: Two people get married and live together for seven years, but they just don’t know anything about themselves or each other…and one of them is a psychotic killer who has exhibited no signs or anti social behavior in these seven years. I’ll leave it at this…3 binoculars out of 5…and not