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Gone Girl (film)

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Gone Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Fincher
Screenplay byGillian Flynn
Based onGone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Produced byArnon MilchanJoshua DonenReese WitherspoonCeán Chaffin
StarringBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisTyler PerryCarrie Coon
CinematographyJeff Cronenweth
Edited byKirk Baxter
Music byTrent ReznorAtticus Ross
Production
companies		Regency EnterprisesTSG Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release datesSeptember 26, 2014 (NYFF)[1]October 3, 2014 (United States)[1]
Running time149 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$369.3 million[3]

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon. In the film, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Pike) in Missouri.

Gone Girl premiered as the opening film at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $369 million worldwide against a $61 million budget, to become Fincher’s highest-grossing film. It is considered a postmodern mystery.[4][5]

Pike’s performance was widely acclaimed by critics, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Additional nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Flynn’s adapted screenplay, which won at Critics’ Choice.[6]

Plot[edit]

On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife, Amy, missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing Amy children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. The media suspect Nick due to his apathy towards Amy’s disappearance.

In the past, Amy revealed to Nick that Amazing Amy was a perfected version made up of the real Amy’s failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to support his dying mother. Nick became distant with Amy, and began cheating on Amy with Andie, one of his students, while Amy became resentful towards Nick for making her move to Missouri.

Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a murder. Boney discovers evidence of financial issues, spousal disputes, and Amy’s recent acquisition of a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy was pregnant, which Nick denies knowing of.

Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary. Amy, this year, had hidden items purchased with Nick’s credit card in the shed, as well as a diary that shows Amy’s growing dread and ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

Amy drives to a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick’s affair, she had conceived a plan to frame him for her murder. She misrepresented the relationship between herself and Nick by falsifying accounts in a diary. Unbeknownst to Nick, she had befriended her neighbor to tell her stories about Nick’s temper, and steal her urine to manipulate pregnancy results. She placed supporting evidence of Nick’s guilt in the clue spots for the “treasure hunt” to let the police find them. She also splattered her own blood across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She assumed that Nick would be executed for her murder, and planned to drown herself.

Nick deduces Amy’s plan and convinces his twin sister, Margo, of his innocence. He flies to New York City and hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, whom Amy had falsely accused of rape, by ostensible “rape wounds” on her vagina and evidence of O’Hara’s semen. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy had filed a restraining order for stalking, but Desi turns him away.

When Amy’s campground neighbors rob her, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she fled Nick’s abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show affirming his innocence and apologizes for his shortcomings as a spouse to lure Amy out of hiding. Boney believes she has enough evidence to arrest Nick for murder, but Bolt gets him out on bail. Amy realizes that Desi intends to keep her in the house to forcibly rekindle their relationship. Amy then uses Desi’s surveillance cameras to help make it appear that he kidnapped and raped her, slits his throat while they have sex, and returns home to Nick covered in Desi’s blood, clearing Nick of suspicion and framing Desi as the kidnapper after recounting a false account of their altercation to Boney.

When Boney brings up the inconsistencies with Amy’s account, she retorts by calling her incompetent. Amy tells Nick the truth and admits to Desi’s murder, saying that him pleading for her to come back is the man she wants. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but there is no evidence of her guilt.

Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals that she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick’s sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy’s insistence that they should remain married but feels responsible for the child and decides to stay married, despite Margo’s qualms. The couple then announces on television that they are expecting a child.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn at the film’s premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Gone Girl is a film adaptation of Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film’s executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn’s film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.[9]

Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: “I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through.”[10]

Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project.[11] Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn’s first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: “… he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie.”[12]

As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter series.[12] Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: “We don’t have the ability to gift the audience with the characters’ thoughts, so tell me how they’re behaving.”[13] During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher “big swaths” of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten “a dozen times”, while other scenes were unaltered.[10]

Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she “wasn’t ever precious about cutting.” As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne’s dead mother.[14]

In terms of the film’s ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a “lot of iterations”. One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the “third player”, alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn’s words: “Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn’t want 8 million more loop-de-loops … I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there.”[12]

Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher’s involvement, as he “really liked the book and didn’t want to turn it into something other than what it already was”, and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself.[11] Fincher described Flynn’s screenwriting work as “very smart”, “crafty”, and “extremely articulate”.[10][13]

Filming[edit]

On September 11, 2013, the Gone Girl film crew began filming establishing shots.[15] Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks.[16][17] Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles,[17] with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.[18]

According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene,[19] while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.[14]

Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.[20][21][22]

Fincher later called Affleck “extremely bright” in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck “has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is”. Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as “tragedy vampirism”, but clarified that “The New York Times and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house”.[13]

Fashion[edit]

The lead costume designer in Gone Girl is Trish Summerville.[23] Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[24] Summerville told InStyle magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy’s clothing to look contemporary due to the film’s present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells[24] that figuring out what Nick and Amy’s ‘everyday life’ is like was one of her biggest challenges.[24] As a result of Amy’s self proclaimed ‘cool girl’ status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy’s pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just “kind of not that girl.”[24] This is also exemplified through Amy’s jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating ‘A’ to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.

Nick Dunne’s character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck’s larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts.[24] The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.[24]

When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy’s wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.

Music[edit]

Main article: Gone Girl (soundtrack)Trent Reznor co-wrote the film’s score.

On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score,[25] marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher’s request in an interview:

David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthentically trying to make him feel OK, and that became a perfect metaphor for this film … The challenge was, simply, what is the musical equivalent of the same sort of facade of comfort and a feeling of insincerity that that music represented? [My primary aim was] to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren’t always what they seem to be.[26]

The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality.[27] NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: “Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it’ll make the brutal moments of Gone Girl all the more harrowing.”[28] Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song “She“, which was used in the film’s teaser trailer.[29][30] The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.[28]

Release[edit]

Affleck and Pike at the film’s premiere

Gone Girl opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, Gone Girl released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.[31]

Home media[edit]

Gone Girl was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015.[32] The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page Amazing Amy book called Tattle Tale.[33] An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.[34]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Gone Girl grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million.[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.[35]

The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day[36][37] (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings).[38][39] It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema‘s horror film Annabelle which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher’s career (breaking Panic Room‘s opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind Pearl Harbor ($59.1 million), and Daredevil ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike’s second biggest opening—behind Die Another Day ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old.[40] The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with Dracula Untold in its second weekend[41] before being overtaken by Fury in its third weekend.[42]

Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected.[31] High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million),[43] Australia ($4.6 million),[43] France ($3.65 million)[44] Russia ($3.4 million),[43] and Germany ($2.6 million).[43]

Critical response[edit]

Rosamund Pike‘s performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gone Girl received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike’s performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, Gone Girl plays to director David Fincher’s sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.”[45] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.[46] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.[47][48]

The Vulture‘s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle.[49] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, Gone Girl shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched.”[50] The Economist called the film a “brilliantly glacial adaptation … This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation”.[51]

Joshua Rothman wrote in The New Yorker that he enjoyed the film “in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory” and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is “decisively unreal … [the] heroes and villains in Fincher’s Gone Girl aren’t people but stories”. Rothman, who draws parallels between Gone Girl and Fincher’s 1999 adaptation Fight Club, decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses “a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us”.[5]

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: “At first blush, Gone Girl is natural Fincherland … so why doesn’t the movie claw us as The Social Network did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?”[7] Slant Magazine‘s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: “Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his Gone Girl as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial.”[52]

In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, “The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn’t keep it up, so they destroy each other”.[53]

Accolades[edit]

Main article: List of accolades received by Gone Girl (film)

Gone Girl garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike’s performance, Flynn’s screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress.[54] The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score.[55] Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).[56] The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year,[57] and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[58]

Top ten lists[edit]

Gone Girl was listed on many critics’ top ten lists.[59]

Themes[edit]

Gender[edit]

In a 2013 interview with Time Out magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as “polarizing”, Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that “women are naturally good” and to show that women are “just as violently minded as men are”.[60] In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: “I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: ‘I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.’ And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written.”[61]

In an October 3, 2014, blog post for Ms. Magazine, Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy’s social privilege which affords her the “necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time” to stage a disappearance—Gone Girl is the “crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior.”[62] Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in The Washington Post on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially “unconvinced” by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that “Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist.”[63]

In an October 6, 2014, article titled “Gone Girl‘s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”, Jezebel‘s Jessica Coen wrote: “Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy’s complexities and you’re left with little more than ‘crazy fucking bitch.’ That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel.”[64] Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, “as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices.”[64] Time‘s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that Gone Girl is both “a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman” and a “feminist manifesto”, and that this duality makes the film interesting.[65] Zoë Heller of The New York Review of Books wrote: “The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn’t really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness”, concluding that “The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper ‘disapproval’: only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success.”[66]

Writing in The Guardian on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film’s “recycling of rape myths“, citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare.[67] She wrote: “The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she’s been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers.”[67] Writing for The Guardian on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith’s argument “wouldn’t carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women’s stories, and characters in mainstream culture”, but concluded with Dockterman’s plea for the portrayal of “all sorts of women in our novels”.[68]

Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film’s predominant focus upon Nick’s perspective “serves to obfuscate Amy’s motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of … anti-women myths”; however, Kroenert concludes that Gone Girl is “a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage.”[69]

Potential sequel[edit]

In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script.[70] In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be “a few years down the road” when the original cast and crew would be available again.[71]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Pond, Steve (July 16, 2014). “David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ to Open New York Film Festival”. TheWrap. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  2. ^ “GONE GIRL (18)”. British Board of Film Classification. September 25, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Gone Girl (2014)”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. January 21, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  4. ^ “Postmodern Mystery”. www.postmodernmystery.com. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Rothman, Joshua (October 8, 2014). “What “Gone Girl” Is Really About”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  6. ^ “Golden Globe: ‘Birdman,’ ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Imitation Game’ Top Nominations”. Variety. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b c Lane, Anthony. “Theydunnit”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  8. ^ “Nancy Grace Reveals What She Really Thinks About ‘Gone Girl’ — to the Actress Who Played Her”. The Hollywood Reporter. December 12, 2014.
  9. ^ Cohen, Stefanie (July 19, 2013). “A Surprise Hit Spawns a Movie Deal”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c Gina McIntyre (September 5, 2014). “Thrills, chills for Gillian Flynn in adapting ‘Gone Girl'”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b “Author Gillian Flynn says filming ‘Gone Girl’ went much better than expected”. kansascity. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Joe Berkowitz (October 3, 2014). “How Gillian Flynn Adapted Her Biggest Novel, ‘Gone Girl,’ Into Her First Screenplay”. Fast CoCreate. Monsueto Ventures. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c Cornish, Audie (October 2, 2014). “David Fincher Talks ‘Gone Girl,’ Avoids Spoilers (Hooray!)”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Jennifer Vineyard (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn on Cool Girls and David Fincher”. Vulture. New York Media LLC. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
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  18. ^ Hansen, Kristine (July 7, 2017). “Get the ‘Gone Girl’ House Before It Vanishes From the Market”. Realtor.com.
  19. ^ “GONE GIRL Movie Review”. Lasvegas.informermg.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  20. ^ Buckley, Cara (October 2, 2014). “Ben Affleck and David Fincher’s Spat in a Hat”.
  21. ^ Rafferty, Scott (July 10, 2015). “Ben Affleck Shut Down ‘Gone Girl’ Filming Over a Yankees Cap”. Rolling Stone.
  22. ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (October 3, 2014). “David Fincher And Ben Affleck Beefed Over A New York Yankees Hat On The Set Of ‘Gone Girl'”.
  23. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”, IMDb, retrieved March 5, 2021
  24. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f “6 Things You Need to Know About Gone Girl’s Costumes”. InStyle. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  25. ^ “Twitter / trent_reznor: and yes, Atticus and I are”. Twitter.com. January 21, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  26. ^ Leah Pickett (October 2, 2014). “Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Gone Girl OST”. Consequence of Sound. Townsquare Music. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  27. ^ “In ‘Gone Girl’ music, Reznor aims ‘to instill doubt'”. USA Today. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  28. ^ Jump up to:a b Andy Beta (September 25, 2014). “First Listen: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, ‘Gone Girl (Motion Picture Soundtrack)'”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  29. ^ “‘Gone Girl’ Trailer With Ben Affleck: 5 Things to Know”. The Hollywood Reporter. March 27, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  30. ^ Jarett Wieselman. “”She” Takes Center Stage In The First “Gone Girl” Trailer”. BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  31. ^ Jump up to:a b Ray Subers (October 5, 2014). “Around-the-World Roundup: Strong Overseas Debuts for ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Annabelle'”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  32. ^ Mendelson, Scott (December 10, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ Is The Oscar Contender Hollywood Needs, Audiences Deserve”. Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  33. ^ “‘Gone Girl’ Blu-ray to include physical ‘Amazing Amy’ book”. Hypable. December 9, 2014. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  34. ^ “Gone Girl Blu-ray”.
  35. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 10, 2015). “No. 12 ‘Gone Girl’ – 2014 Most Valuable Blockbuster Movie Tournament”. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  36. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 4, 2014). “Friday Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Nabs $15.5M, ‘Gone Girl’ Nabs $13.2M”. Forbes. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  37. ^ Maane Khatchatourian (October 4, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ Headed for $38 Mil Weekend Win, ‘Annabelle’ Tops Friday Box Office”. Variety. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  38. ^ McClintock, Pamela (October 3, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Beats ‘Gone Girl’ Thursday Night, Both Off to Strong Start”. The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  39. ^ McNary, Dave (October 3, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Tops ‘Gone Girl’ with $2.1 Million Thursday Night”. Variety. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  40. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 5, 2014). “Weekend Box Office: ‘Gone Girl’ Scores $38M, ‘Annabelle’ Nabs $37.2M”. Forbes. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  41. ^ Brent Lang (October 12, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Gone Girl’ Edges Out ‘Dracula Untold,’ ‘The Judge’ With $26.8 Million”. Variety. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  42. ^ Brent Lang (October 19, 2014). “Box Office: Brad Pitt’s ‘Fury’ Edges Out ‘Book of Life,’ ‘Gone Girl'”. Variety. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  43. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Nancy Tartagloine (October 5, 2014). “Int’l Box Office Update: ‘Breakup Buddies’ In Huge China Debut; ‘Gone Girl’ A Beaut With $24.6M; ‘Bang Bang’ Holsters $25.4M; More”. Deadline.com. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  44. ^ Nancy Tartagloine (October 12, 2014). “Int’l Box Office Update: ‘Gone Girl’, ‘Annabelle’ Tussle In $27M Tie; ‘Dracula’ Drinks Up $34M; ‘Guardians’ Strong In China; More”. Deadline.com. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  45. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  46. ^ “Gone Girl Reviews”. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  47. ^ Subers, Ray (October 5, 2014). “Weekend Report: Moviegoers Thrill to ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Annabelle’ This Weekend”. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  48. ^ McClintock, Pamela (October 5, 2014). “Box Office: David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ Tops ‘Annabelle’ With Career-Best $38M”. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  49. ^ Kyle Buchanan; Lindsey Weber (October 7, 2014). “What Were the Best Parts of Gone Girl?”. Vulture. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  50. ^ Turan, Kenneth (September 25, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ finds David Fincher at delightfully twisted best”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  51. ^ F.S (October 3, 2014). “A perfect adaptation”. Prospero: Books, arts and culture. The Economist. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  52. ^ Ed Gonzalez (September 27, 2014). “Film Review: Gone Girl”. Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  53. ^ Maureen Dowd (12 October 2014), “Lady psychopaths welcome“, The New York Times, p. SR11.
  54. ^ “The 87th Academy Awards | 2015”. Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  55. ^ “Winners & Nominees 2015”. www.goldenglobes.com. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
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  57. ^ “National Board of Review Announces 2014 Award Winners”. National Board of Review. December 2, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  58. ^ Gardener, Elysa (December 6, 2014). “The complete nominations list for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards”. USA. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  59. ^ “Best of 2014: Film Critic Top Ten Lists”. Metacritic.
  60. ^ Novid Parsi (February 7, 2013). “Gillian Flynn on Gone Girl – Interview”. Time Out Chicago. Time Out Media. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  61. ^ Cara Buckley (November 19, 2014). “Gone Girls, Found Talking With the Authors of ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Wild'”. The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  62. ^ Natalie Wilson (October 3, 2014). “Blog: What’s Missing From the Gone Girl Debate? Privilege!”. Ms. Magazine. Ms. Magazine. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  63. ^ Alyssa Rosenberg (October 3, 2014). “Is ‘Gone Girl’s Amy a misogynist? A misandrist? Or both?”. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  64. ^ Jump up to:a b Jessica Coen (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”. Jezebel. Kinja. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  65. ^ Eliana Dockterman (October 6, 2014). “Is Gone Girl Feminist or Misogynist?”. Time. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  66. ^ Heller, Zoë (December 4, 2014). “The Hard Work of Marriage”. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  67. ^ Jump up to:a b Joan Smith (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s recycling of rape myths is a disgusting distortion”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  68. ^ Emine Saner (October 7, 2014). “The Gone Girl backlash: what women don’t want”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  69. ^ Tim Kroenert (October 8, 2014). “Gone Girl promotes conversations about misogyny”. EurekaStreet.com.au. Jesuit Communications Australia. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  70. ^ “Rosamund Pike Will Return For Gone Girl 2 If This Person Does”. October 10, 2014.
  71. ^ Hawkes, Rebecca (January 13, 2015). “Gone Girl 2 ‘could happen'”. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

 Media related to Gone Girl at Wikimedia Commons

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Gone Girl (film)

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Gone Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Fincher
Screenplay byGillian Flynn
Based onGone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Produced byArnon MilchanJoshua DonenReese WitherspoonCeán Chaffin
StarringBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisTyler PerryCarrie Coon
CinematographyJeff Cronenweth
Edited byKirk Baxter
Music byTrent ReznorAtticus Ross
Production
companies		Regency EnterprisesTSG Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release datesSeptember 26, 2014 (NYFF)[1]October 3, 2014 (United States)[1]
Running time149 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$369.3 million[3]

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon. In the film, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Pike) in Missouri.

Gone Girl premiered as the opening film at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $369 million worldwide against a $61 million budget, to become Fincher’s highest-grossing film. It is considered a postmodern mystery.[4][5]

Pike’s performance was widely acclaimed by critics, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Additional nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Flynn’s adapted screenplay, which won at Critics’ Choice.[6]

Plot[edit]

On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife, Amy, missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing Amy children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. The media suspect Nick due to his apathy towards Amy’s disappearance.

In the past, Amy revealed to Nick that Amazing Amy was a perfected version made up of the real Amy’s failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to support his dying mother. Nick became distant with Amy, and began cheating on Amy with Andie, one of his students, while Amy became resentful towards Nick for making her move to Missouri.

Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a murder. Boney discovers evidence of financial issues, spousal disputes, and Amy’s recent acquisition of a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy was pregnant, which Nick denies knowing of.

Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary. Amy, this year, had hidden items purchased with Nick’s credit card in the shed, as well as a diary that shows Amy’s growing dread and ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

Amy drives to a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick’s affair, she had conceived a plan to frame him for her murder. She misrepresented the relationship between herself and Nick by falsifying accounts in a diary. Unbeknownst to Nick, she had befriended her neighbor to tell her stories about Nick’s temper, and steal her urine to manipulate pregnancy results. She placed supporting evidence of Nick’s guilt in the clue spots for the “treasure hunt” to let the police find them. She also splattered her own blood across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She assumed that Nick would be executed for her murder, and planned to drown herself.

Nick deduces Amy’s plan and convinces his twin sister, Margo, of his innocence. He flies to New York City and hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, whom Amy had falsely accused of rape, by ostensible “rape wounds” on her vagina and evidence of O’Hara’s semen. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy had filed a restraining order for stalking, but Desi turns him away.

When Amy’s campground neighbors rob her, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she fled Nick’s abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show affirming his innocence and apologizes for his shortcomings as a spouse to lure Amy out of hiding. Boney believes she has enough evidence to arrest Nick for murder, but Bolt gets him out on bail. Amy realizes that Desi intends to keep her in the house to forcibly rekindle their relationship. Amy then uses Desi’s surveillance cameras to help make it appear that he kidnapped and raped her, slits his throat while they have sex, and returns home to Nick covered in Desi’s blood, clearing Nick of suspicion and framing Desi as the kidnapper after recounting a false account of their altercation to Boney.

When Boney brings up the inconsistencies with Amy’s account, she retorts by calling her incompetent. Amy tells Nick the truth and admits to Desi’s murder, saying that him pleading for her to come back is the man she wants. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but there is no evidence of her guilt.

Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals that she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick’s sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy’s insistence that they should remain married but feels responsible for the child and decides to stay married, despite Margo’s qualms. The couple then announces on television that they are expecting a child.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn at the film’s premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Gone Girl is a film adaptation of Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film’s executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn’s film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.[9]

Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: “I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through.”[10]

Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project.[11] Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn’s first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: “… he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie.”[12]

As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter series.[12] Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: “We don’t have the ability to gift the audience with the characters’ thoughts, so tell me how they’re behaving.”[13] During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher “big swaths” of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten “a dozen times”, while other scenes were unaltered.[10]

Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she “wasn’t ever precious about cutting.” As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne’s dead mother.[14]

In terms of the film’s ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a “lot of iterations”. One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the “third player”, alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn’s words: “Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn’t want 8 million more loop-de-loops … I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there.”[12]

Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher’s involvement, as he “really liked the book and didn’t want to turn it into something other than what it already was”, and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself.[11] Fincher described Flynn’s screenwriting work as “very smart”, “crafty”, and “extremely articulate”.[10][13]

Filming[edit]

On September 11, 2013, the Gone Girl film crew began filming establishing shots.[15] Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks.[16][17] Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles,[17] with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.[18]

According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene,[19] while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.[14]

Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.[20][21][22]

Fincher later called Affleck “extremely bright” in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck “has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is”. Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as “tragedy vampirism”, but clarified that “The New York Times and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house”.[13]

Fashion[edit]

The lead costume designer in Gone Girl is Trish Summerville.[23] Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[24] Summerville told InStyle magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy’s clothing to look contemporary due to the film’s present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells[24] that figuring out what Nick and Amy’s ‘everyday life’ is like was one of her biggest challenges.[24] As a result of Amy’s self proclaimed ‘cool girl’ status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy’s pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just “kind of not that girl.”[24] This is also exemplified through Amy’s jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating ‘A’ to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.

Nick Dunne’s character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck’s larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts.[24] The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.[24]

When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy’s wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.

Music[edit]

Main article: Gone Girl (soundtrack)Trent Reznor co-wrote the film’s score.

On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score,[25] marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher’s request in an interview:

David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthentically trying to make him feel OK, and that became a perfect metaphor for this film … The challenge was, simply, what is the musical equivalent of the same sort of facade of comfort and a feeling of insincerity that that music represented? [My primary aim was] to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren’t always what they seem to be.[26]

The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality.[27] NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: “Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it’ll make the brutal moments of Gone Girl all the more harrowing.”[28] Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song “She“, which was used in the film’s teaser trailer.[29][30] The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.[28]

Release[edit]

Affleck and Pike at the film’s premiere

Gone Girl opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, Gone Girl released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.[31]

Home media[edit]

Gone Girl was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015.[32] The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page Amazing Amy book called Tattle Tale.[33] An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.[34]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Gone Girl grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million.[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.[35]

The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day[36][37] (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings).[38][39] It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema‘s horror film Annabelle which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher’s career (breaking Panic Room‘s opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind Pearl Harbor ($59.1 million), and Daredevil ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike’s second biggest opening—behind Die Another Day ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old.[40] The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with Dracula Untold in its second weekend[41] before being overtaken by Fury in its third weekend.[42]

Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected.[31] High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million),[43] Australia ($4.6 million),[43] France ($3.65 million)[44] Russia ($3.4 million),[43] and Germany ($2.6 million).[43]

Critical response[edit]

Rosamund Pike‘s performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gone Girl received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike’s performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, Gone Girl plays to director David Fincher’s sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.”[45] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.[46] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.[47][48]

The Vulture‘s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle.[49] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, Gone Girl shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched.”[50] The Economist called the film a “brilliantly glacial adaptation … This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation”.[51]

Joshua Rothman wrote in The New Yorker that he enjoyed the film “in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory” and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is “decisively unreal … [the] heroes and villains in Fincher’s Gone Girl aren’t people but stories”. Rothman, who draws parallels between Gone Girl and Fincher’s 1999 adaptation Fight Club, decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses “a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us”.[5]

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: “At first blush, Gone Girl is natural Fincherland … so why doesn’t the movie claw us as The Social Network did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?”[7] Slant Magazine‘s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: “Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his Gone Girl as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial.”[52]

In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, “The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn’t keep it up, so they destroy each other”.[53]

Accolades[edit]

Main article: List of accolades received by Gone Girl (film)

Gone Girl garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike’s performance, Flynn’s screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress.[54] The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score.[55] Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).[56] The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year,[57] and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[58]

Top ten lists[edit]

Gone Girl was listed on many critics’ top ten lists.[59]

Themes[edit]

Gender[edit]

In a 2013 interview with Time Out magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as “polarizing”, Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that “women are naturally good” and to show that women are “just as violently minded as men are”.[60] In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: “I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: ‘I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.’ And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written.”[61]

In an October 3, 2014, blog post for Ms. Magazine, Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy’s social privilege which affords her the “necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time” to stage a disappearance—Gone Girl is the “crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior.”[62] Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in The Washington Post on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially “unconvinced” by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that “Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist.”[63]

In an October 6, 2014, article titled “Gone Girl‘s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”, Jezebel‘s Jessica Coen wrote: “Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy’s complexities and you’re left with little more than ‘crazy fucking bitch.’ That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel.”[64] Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, “as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices.”[64] Time‘s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that Gone Girl is both “a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman” and a “feminist manifesto”, and that this duality makes the film interesting.[65] Zoë Heller of The New York Review of Books wrote: “The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn’t really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness”, concluding that “The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper ‘disapproval’: only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success.”[66]

Writing in The Guardian on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film’s “recycling of rape myths“, citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare.[67] She wrote: “The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she’s been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers.”[67] Writing for The Guardian on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith’s argument “wouldn’t carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women’s stories, and characters in mainstream culture”, but concluded with Dockterman’s plea for the portrayal of “all sorts of women in our novels”.[68]

Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film’s predominant focus upon Nick’s perspective “serves to obfuscate Amy’s motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of … anti-women myths”; however, Kroenert concludes that Gone Girl is “a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage.”[69]

Potential sequel[edit]

In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script.[70] In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be “a few years down the road” when the original cast and crew would be available again.[71]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Pond, Steve (July 16, 2014). “David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ to Open New York Film Festival”. TheWrap. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  2. ^ “GONE GIRL (18)”. British Board of Film Classification. September 25, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Gone Girl (2014)”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. January 21, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  4. ^ “Postmodern Mystery”. www.postmodernmystery.com. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Rothman, Joshua (October 8, 2014). “What “Gone Girl” Is Really About”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  6. ^ “Golden Globe: ‘Birdman,’ ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Imitation Game’ Top Nominations”. Variety. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b c Lane, Anthony. “Theydunnit”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  8. ^ “Nancy Grace Reveals What She Really Thinks About ‘Gone Girl’ — to the Actress Who Played Her”. The Hollywood Reporter. December 12, 2014.
  9. ^ Cohen, Stefanie (July 19, 2013). “A Surprise Hit Spawns a Movie Deal”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c Gina McIntyre (September 5, 2014). “Thrills, chills for Gillian Flynn in adapting ‘Gone Girl'”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b “Author Gillian Flynn says filming ‘Gone Girl’ went much better than expected”. kansascity. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Joe Berkowitz (October 3, 2014). “How Gillian Flynn Adapted Her Biggest Novel, ‘Gone Girl,’ Into Her First Screenplay”. Fast CoCreate. Monsueto Ventures. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c Cornish, Audie (October 2, 2014). “David Fincher Talks ‘Gone Girl,’ Avoids Spoilers (Hooray!)”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Jennifer Vineyard (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn on Cool Girls and David Fincher”. Vulture. New York Media LLC. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  15. ^ “Gone Girl starts filming in Cape Girardeau”. KFVS12.com. September 12, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  16. ^ “Gone Girl movie filming scenes in Cape Girardeau”. KansasCity.com. September 11, 2013. Archived from the original on September 16, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b “Producer: Gone Girl filming here”. semissourian.com. September 11, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  18. ^ Hansen, Kristine (July 7, 2017). “Get the ‘Gone Girl’ House Before It Vanishes From the Market”. Realtor.com.
  19. ^ “GONE GIRL Movie Review”. Lasvegas.informermg.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  20. ^ Buckley, Cara (October 2, 2014). “Ben Affleck and David Fincher’s Spat in a Hat”.
  21. ^ Rafferty, Scott (July 10, 2015). “Ben Affleck Shut Down ‘Gone Girl’ Filming Over a Yankees Cap”. Rolling Stone.
  22. ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (October 3, 2014). “David Fincher And Ben Affleck Beefed Over A New York Yankees Hat On The Set Of ‘Gone Girl'”.
  23. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”, IMDb, retrieved March 5, 2021
  24. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f “6 Things You Need to Know About Gone Girl’s Costumes”. InStyle. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  25. ^ “Twitter / trent_reznor: and yes, Atticus and I are”. Twitter.com. January 21, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  26. ^ Leah Pickett (October 2, 2014). “Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Gone Girl OST”. Consequence of Sound. Townsquare Music. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  27. ^ “In ‘Gone Girl’ music, Reznor aims ‘to instill doubt'”. USA Today. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  28. ^ Jump up to:a b Andy Beta (September 25, 2014). “First Listen: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, ‘Gone Girl (Motion Picture Soundtrack)'”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  29. ^ “‘Gone Girl’ Trailer With Ben Affleck: 5 Things to Know”. The Hollywood Reporter. March 27, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  30. ^ Jarett Wieselman. “”She” Takes Center Stage In The First “Gone Girl” Trailer”. BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  31. ^ Jump up to:a b Ray Subers (October 5, 2014). “Around-the-World Roundup: Strong Overseas Debuts for ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Annabelle'”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  32. ^ Mendelson, Scott (December 10, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ Is The Oscar Contender Hollywood Needs, Audiences Deserve”. Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  33. ^ “‘Gone Girl’ Blu-ray to include physical ‘Amazing Amy’ book”. Hypable. December 9, 2014. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  34. ^ “Gone Girl Blu-ray”.
  35. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 10, 2015). “No. 12 ‘Gone Girl’ – 2014 Most Valuable Blockbuster Movie Tournament”. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  36. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 4, 2014). “Friday Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Nabs $15.5M, ‘Gone Girl’ Nabs $13.2M”. Forbes. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  37. ^ Maane Khatchatourian (October 4, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ Headed for $38 Mil Weekend Win, ‘Annabelle’ Tops Friday Box Office”. Variety. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  38. ^ McClintock, Pamela (October 3, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Beats ‘Gone Girl’ Thursday Night, Both Off to Strong Start”. The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  39. ^ McNary, Dave (October 3, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Tops ‘Gone Girl’ with $2.1 Million Thursday Night”. Variety. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  40. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 5, 2014). “Weekend Box Office: ‘Gone Girl’ Scores $38M, ‘Annabelle’ Nabs $37.2M”. Forbes. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  41. ^ Brent Lang (October 12, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Gone Girl’ Edges Out ‘Dracula Untold,’ ‘The Judge’ With $26.8 Million”. Variety. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  42. ^ Brent Lang (October 19, 2014). “Box Office: Brad Pitt’s ‘Fury’ Edges Out ‘Book of Life,’ ‘Gone Girl'”. Variety. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  43. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Nancy Tartagloine (October 5, 2014). “Int’l Box Office Update: ‘Breakup Buddies’ In Huge China Debut; ‘Gone Girl’ A Beaut With $24.6M; ‘Bang Bang’ Holsters $25.4M; More”. Deadline.com. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  44. ^ Nancy Tartagloine (October 12, 2014). “Int’l Box Office Update: ‘Gone Girl’, ‘Annabelle’ Tussle In $27M Tie; ‘Dracula’ Drinks Up $34M; ‘Guardians’ Strong In China; More”. Deadline.com. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  45. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  46. ^ “Gone Girl Reviews”. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  47. ^ Subers, Ray (October 5, 2014). “Weekend Report: Moviegoers Thrill to ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Annabelle’ This Weekend”. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  48. ^ McClintock, Pamela (October 5, 2014). “Box Office: David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ Tops ‘Annabelle’ With Career-Best $38M”. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  49. ^ Kyle Buchanan; Lindsey Weber (October 7, 2014). “What Were the Best Parts of Gone Girl?”. Vulture. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  50. ^ Turan, Kenneth (September 25, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ finds David Fincher at delightfully twisted best”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  51. ^ F.S (October 3, 2014). “A perfect adaptation”. Prospero: Books, arts and culture. The Economist. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  52. ^ Ed Gonzalez (September 27, 2014). “Film Review: Gone Girl”. Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  53. ^ Maureen Dowd (12 October 2014), “Lady psychopaths welcome“, The New York Times, p. SR11.
  54. ^ “The 87th Academy Awards | 2015”. Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  55. ^ “Winners & Nominees 2015”. www.goldenglobes.com. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  56. ^ “2015 Film Leading Actress | BAFTA Awards”. awards.bafta.org. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  57. ^ “National Board of Review Announces 2014 Award Winners”. National Board of Review. December 2, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  58. ^ Gardener, Elysa (December 6, 2014). “The complete nominations list for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards”. USA. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  59. ^ “Best of 2014: Film Critic Top Ten Lists”. Metacritic.
  60. ^ Novid Parsi (February 7, 2013). “Gillian Flynn on Gone Girl – Interview”. Time Out Chicago. Time Out Media. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  61. ^ Cara Buckley (November 19, 2014). “Gone Girls, Found Talking With the Authors of ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Wild'”. The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  62. ^ Natalie Wilson (October 3, 2014). “Blog: What’s Missing From the Gone Girl Debate? Privilege!”. Ms. Magazine. Ms. Magazine. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  63. ^ Alyssa Rosenberg (October 3, 2014). “Is ‘Gone Girl’s Amy a misogynist? A misandrist? Or both?”. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  64. ^ Jump up to:a b Jessica Coen (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”. Jezebel. Kinja. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  65. ^ Eliana Dockterman (October 6, 2014). “Is Gone Girl Feminist or Misogynist?”. Time. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  66. ^ Heller, Zoë (December 4, 2014). “The Hard Work of Marriage”. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  67. ^ Jump up to:a b Joan Smith (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s recycling of rape myths is a disgusting distortion”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  68. ^ Emine Saner (October 7, 2014). “The Gone Girl backlash: what women don’t want”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  69. ^ Tim Kroenert (October 8, 2014). “Gone Girl promotes conversations about misogyny”. EurekaStreet.com.au. Jesuit Communications Australia. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  70. ^ “Rosamund Pike Will Return For Gone Girl 2 If This Person Does”. October 10, 2014.
  71. ^ Hawkes, Rebecca (January 13, 2015). “Gone Girl 2 ‘could happen'”. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

 Media related to Gone Girl at Wikimedia Commons

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Gone Girl (film)

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gone Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Fincher
Screenplay byGillian Flynn
Based onGone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Produced byArnon MilchanJoshua DonenReese WitherspoonCeán Chaffin
StarringBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisTyler PerryCarrie Coon
CinematographyJeff Cronenweth
Edited byKirk Baxter
Music byTrent ReznorAtticus Ross
Production
companies		Regency EnterprisesTSG Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release datesSeptember 26, 2014 (NYFF)[1]October 3, 2014 (United States)[1]
Running time149 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$369.3 million[3]

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon. In the film, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Pike) in Missouri.

Gone Girl premiered as the opening film at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $369 million worldwide against a $61 million budget, to become Fincher’s highest-grossing film. It is considered a postmodern mystery.[4][5]

Pike’s performance was widely acclaimed by critics, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Additional nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Flynn’s adapted screenplay, which won at Critics’ Choice.[6]

Plot[edit]

On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife, Amy, missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing Amy children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. The media suspect Nick due to his apathy towards Amy’s disappearance.

In the past, Amy revealed to Nick that Amazing Amy was a perfected version made up of the real Amy’s failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to support his dying mother. Nick became distant with Amy, and began cheating on Amy with Andie, one of his students, while Amy became resentful towards Nick for making her move to Missouri.

Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a murder. Boney discovers evidence of financial issues, spousal disputes, and Amy’s recent acquisition of a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy was pregnant, which Nick denies knowing of.

Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary. Amy, this year, had hidden items purchased with Nick’s credit card in the shed, as well as a diary that shows Amy’s growing dread and ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

Amy drives to a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick’s affair, she had conceived a plan to frame him for her murder. She misrepresented the relationship between herself and Nick by falsifying accounts in a diary. Unbeknownst to Nick, she had befriended her neighbor to tell her stories about Nick’s temper, and steal her urine to manipulate pregnancy results. She placed supporting evidence of Nick’s guilt in the clue spots for the “treasure hunt” to let the police find them. She also splattered her own blood across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She assumed that Nick would be executed for her murder, and planned to drown herself.

Nick deduces Amy’s plan and convinces his twin sister, Margo, of his innocence. He flies to New York City and hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, whom Amy had falsely accused of rape, by ostensible “rape wounds” on her vagina and evidence of O’Hara’s semen. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy had filed a restraining order for stalking, but Desi turns him away.

When Amy’s campground neighbors rob her, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she fled Nick’s abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show affirming his innocence and apologizes for his shortcomings as a spouse to lure Amy out of hiding. Boney believes she has enough evidence to arrest Nick for murder, but Bolt gets him out on bail. Amy realizes that Desi intends to keep her in the house to forcibly rekindle their relationship. Amy then uses Desi’s surveillance cameras to help make it appear that he kidnapped and raped her, slits his throat while they have sex, and returns home to Nick covered in Desi’s blood, clearing Nick of suspicion and framing Desi as the kidnapper after recounting a false account of their altercation to Boney.

When Boney brings up the inconsistencies with Amy’s account, she retorts by calling her incompetent. Amy tells Nick the truth and admits to Desi’s murder, saying that him pleading for her to come back is the man she wants. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but there is no evidence of her guilt.

Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals that she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick’s sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy’s insistence that they should remain married but feels responsible for the child and decides to stay married, despite Margo’s qualms. The couple then announces on television that they are expecting a child.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn at the film’s premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Gone Girl is a film adaptation of Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film’s executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn’s film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.[9]

Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: “I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through.”[10]

Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project.[11] Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn’s first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: “… he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie.”[12]

As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter series.[12] Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: “We don’t have the ability to gift the audience with the characters’ thoughts, so tell me how they’re behaving.”[13] During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher “big swaths” of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten “a dozen times”, while other scenes were unaltered.[10]

Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she “wasn’t ever precious about cutting.” As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne’s dead mother.[14]

In terms of the film’s ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a “lot of iterations”. One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the “third player”, alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn’s words: “Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn’t want 8 million more loop-de-loops … I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there.”[12]

Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher’s involvement, as he “really liked the book and didn’t want to turn it into something other than what it already was”, and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself.[11] Fincher described Flynn’s screenwriting work as “very smart”, “crafty”, and “extremely articulate”.[10][13]

Filming[edit]

On September 11, 2013, the Gone Girl film crew began filming establishing shots.[15] Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks.[16][17] Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles,[17] with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.[18]

According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene,[19] while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.[14]

Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.[20][21][22]

Fincher later called Affleck “extremely bright” in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck “has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is”. Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as “tragedy vampirism”, but clarified that “The New York Times and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house”.[13]

Fashion[edit]

The lead costume designer in Gone Girl is Trish Summerville.[23] Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[24] Summerville told InStyle magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy’s clothing to look contemporary due to the film’s present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells[24] that figuring out what Nick and Amy’s ‘everyday life’ is like was one of her biggest challenges.[24] As a result of Amy’s self proclaimed ‘cool girl’ status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy’s pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just “kind of not that girl.”[24] This is also exemplified through Amy’s jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating ‘A’ to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.

Nick Dunne’s character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck’s larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts.[24] The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.[24]

When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy’s wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.

Music[edit]

Main article: Gone Girl (soundtrack)Trent Reznor co-wrote the film’s score.

On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score,[25] marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher’s request in an interview:

David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthentically trying to make him feel OK, and that became a perfect metaphor for this film … The challenge was, simply, what is the musical equivalent of the same sort of facade of comfort and a feeling of insincerity that that music represented? [My primary aim was] to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren’t always what they seem to be.[26]

The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality.[27] NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: “Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it’ll make the brutal moments of Gone Girl all the more harrowing.”[28] Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song “She“, which was used in the film’s teaser trailer.[29][30] The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.[28]

Release[edit]

Affleck and Pike at the film’s premiere

Gone Girl opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, Gone Girl released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.[31]

Home media[edit]

Gone Girl was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015.[32] The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page Amazing Amy book called Tattle Tale.[33] An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.[34]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Gone Girl grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million.[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.[35]

The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day[36][37] (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings).[38][39] It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema‘s horror film Annabelle which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher’s career (breaking Panic Room‘s opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind Pearl Harbor ($59.1 million), and Daredevil ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike’s second biggest opening—behind Die Another Day ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old.[40] The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with Dracula Untold in its second weekend[41] before being overtaken by Fury in its third weekend.[42]

Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected.[31] High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million),[43] Australia ($4.6 million),[43] France ($3.65 million)[44] Russia ($3.4 million),[43] and Germany ($2.6 million).[43]

Critical response[edit]

Rosamund Pike‘s performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gone Girl received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike’s performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, Gone Girl plays to director David Fincher’s sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.”[45] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.[46] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.[47][48]

The Vulture‘s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle.[49] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, Gone Girl shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched.”[50] The Economist called the film a “brilliantly glacial adaptation … This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation”.[51]

Joshua Rothman wrote in The New Yorker that he enjoyed the film “in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory” and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is “decisively unreal … [the] heroes and villains in Fincher’s Gone Girl aren’t people but stories”. Rothman, who draws parallels between Gone Girl and Fincher’s 1999 adaptation Fight Club, decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses “a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us”.[5]

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: “At first blush, Gone Girl is natural Fincherland … so why doesn’t the movie claw us as The Social Network did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?”[7] Slant Magazine‘s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: “Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his Gone Girl as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial.”[52]

In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, “The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn’t keep it up, so they destroy each other”.[53]

Accolades[edit]

Main article: List of accolades received by Gone Girl (film)

Gone Girl garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike’s performance, Flynn’s screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress.[54] The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score.[55] Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).[56] The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year,[57] and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[58]

Top ten lists[edit]

Gone Girl was listed on many critics’ top ten lists.[59]

Themes[edit]

Gender[edit]

In a 2013 interview with Time Out magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as “polarizing”, Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that “women are naturally good” and to show that women are “just as violently minded as men are”.[60] In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: “I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: ‘I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.’ And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written.”[61]

In an October 3, 2014, blog post for Ms. Magazine, Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy’s social privilege which affords her the “necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time” to stage a disappearance—Gone Girl is the “crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior.”[62] Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in The Washington Post on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially “unconvinced” by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that “Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist.”[63]

In an October 6, 2014, article titled “Gone Girl‘s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”, Jezebel‘s Jessica Coen wrote: “Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy’s complexities and you’re left with little more than ‘crazy fucking bitch.’ That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel.”[64] Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, “as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices.”[64] Time‘s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that Gone Girl is both “a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman” and a “feminist manifesto”, and that this duality makes the film interesting.[65] Zoë Heller of The New York Review of Books wrote: “The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn’t really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness”, concluding that “The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper ‘disapproval’: only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success.”[66]

Writing in The Guardian on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film’s “recycling of rape myths“, citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare.[67] She wrote: “The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she’s been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers.”[67] Writing for The Guardian on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith’s argument “wouldn’t carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women’s stories, and characters in mainstream culture”, but concluded with Dockterman’s plea for the portrayal of “all sorts of women in our novels”.[68]

Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film’s predominant focus upon Nick’s perspective “serves to obfuscate Amy’s motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of … anti-women myths”; however, Kroenert concludes that Gone Girl is “a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage.”[69]

Potential sequel[edit]

In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script.[70] In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be “a few years down the road” when the original cast and crew would be available again.[71]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Pond, Steve (July 16, 2014). “David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ to Open New York Film Festival”. TheWrap. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  2. ^ “GONE GIRL (18)”. British Board of Film Classification. September 25, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Gone Girl (2014)”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. January 21, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  4. ^ “Postmodern Mystery”. www.postmodernmystery.com. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Rothman, Joshua (October 8, 2014). “What “Gone Girl” Is Really About”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  6. ^ “Golden Globe: ‘Birdman,’ ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Imitation Game’ Top Nominations”. Variety. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b c Lane, Anthony. “Theydunnit”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  8. ^ “Nancy Grace Reveals What She Really Thinks About ‘Gone Girl’ — to the Actress Who Played Her”. The Hollywood Reporter. December 12, 2014.
  9. ^ Cohen, Stefanie (July 19, 2013). “A Surprise Hit Spawns a Movie Deal”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c Gina McIntyre (September 5, 2014). “Thrills, chills for Gillian Flynn in adapting ‘Gone Girl'”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b “Author Gillian Flynn says filming ‘Gone Girl’ went much better than expected”. kansascity. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Joe Berkowitz (October 3, 2014). “How Gillian Flynn Adapted Her Biggest Novel, ‘Gone Girl,’ Into Her First Screenplay”. Fast CoCreate. Monsueto Ventures. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c Cornish, Audie (October 2, 2014). “David Fincher Talks ‘Gone Girl,’ Avoids Spoilers (Hooray!)”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Jennifer Vineyard (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn on Cool Girls and David Fincher”. Vulture. New York Media LLC. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  15. ^ “Gone Girl starts filming in Cape Girardeau”. KFVS12.com. September 12, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  16. ^ “Gone Girl movie filming scenes in Cape Girardeau”. KansasCity.com. September 11, 2013. Archived from the original on September 16, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b “Producer: Gone Girl filming here”. semissourian.com. September 11, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  18. ^ Hansen, Kristine (July 7, 2017). “Get the ‘Gone Girl’ House Before It Vanishes From the Market”. Realtor.com.
  19. ^ “GONE GIRL Movie Review”. Lasvegas.informermg.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  20. ^ Buckley, Cara (October 2, 2014). “Ben Affleck and David Fincher’s Spat in a Hat”.
  21. ^ Rafferty, Scott (July 10, 2015). “Ben Affleck Shut Down ‘Gone Girl’ Filming Over a Yankees Cap”. Rolling Stone.
  22. ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (October 3, 2014). “David Fincher And Ben Affleck Beefed Over A New York Yankees Hat On The Set Of ‘Gone Girl'”.
  23. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”, IMDb, retrieved March 5, 2021
  24. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f “6 Things You Need to Know About Gone Girl’s Costumes”. InStyle. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  25. ^ “Twitter / trent_reznor: and yes, Atticus and I are”. Twitter.com. January 21, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  26. ^ Leah Pickett (October 2, 2014). “Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Gone Girl OST”. Consequence of Sound. Townsquare Music. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  27. ^ “In ‘Gone Girl’ music, Reznor aims ‘to instill doubt'”. USA Today. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  28. ^ Jump up to:a b Andy Beta (September 25, 2014). “First Listen: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, ‘Gone Girl (Motion Picture Soundtrack)'”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  29. ^ “‘Gone Girl’ Trailer With Ben Affleck: 5 Things to Know”. The Hollywood Reporter. March 27, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2014.
  30. ^ Jarett Wieselman. “”She” Takes Center Stage In The First “Gone Girl” Trailer”. BuzzFeed. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  31. ^ Jump up to:a b Ray Subers (October 5, 2014). “Around-the-World Roundup: Strong Overseas Debuts for ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Annabelle'”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  32. ^ Mendelson, Scott (December 10, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ Is The Oscar Contender Hollywood Needs, Audiences Deserve”. Forbes. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  33. ^ “‘Gone Girl’ Blu-ray to include physical ‘Amazing Amy’ book”. Hypable. December 9, 2014. Archived from the original on January 12, 2015. Retrieved January 7, 2015.
  34. ^ “Gone Girl Blu-ray”.
  35. ^ Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 10, 2015). “No. 12 ‘Gone Girl’ – 2014 Most Valuable Blockbuster Movie Tournament”. Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  36. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 4, 2014). “Friday Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Nabs $15.5M, ‘Gone Girl’ Nabs $13.2M”. Forbes. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  37. ^ Maane Khatchatourian (October 4, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ Headed for $38 Mil Weekend Win, ‘Annabelle’ Tops Friday Box Office”. Variety. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  38. ^ McClintock, Pamela (October 3, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Beats ‘Gone Girl’ Thursday Night, Both Off to Strong Start”. The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  39. ^ McNary, Dave (October 3, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Annabelle’ Tops ‘Gone Girl’ with $2.1 Million Thursday Night”. Variety. Retrieved October 3, 2014.
  40. ^ Scott Mendelson (October 5, 2014). “Weekend Box Office: ‘Gone Girl’ Scores $38M, ‘Annabelle’ Nabs $37.2M”. Forbes. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  41. ^ Brent Lang (October 12, 2014). “Box Office: ‘Gone Girl’ Edges Out ‘Dracula Untold,’ ‘The Judge’ With $26.8 Million”. Variety. Retrieved October 12, 2014.
  42. ^ Brent Lang (October 19, 2014). “Box Office: Brad Pitt’s ‘Fury’ Edges Out ‘Book of Life,’ ‘Gone Girl'”. Variety. Retrieved October 19, 2014.
  43. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Nancy Tartagloine (October 5, 2014). “Int’l Box Office Update: ‘Breakup Buddies’ In Huge China Debut; ‘Gone Girl’ A Beaut With $24.6M; ‘Bang Bang’ Holsters $25.4M; More”. Deadline.com. Retrieved October 6, 2014.
  44. ^ Nancy Tartagloine (October 12, 2014). “Int’l Box Office Update: ‘Gone Girl’, ‘Annabelle’ Tussle In $27M Tie; ‘Dracula’ Drinks Up $34M; ‘Guardians’ Strong In China; More”. Deadline.com. Retrieved October 13, 2014.
  45. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”. Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  46. ^ “Gone Girl Reviews”. Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  47. ^ Subers, Ray (October 5, 2014). “Weekend Report: Moviegoers Thrill to ‘Gone Girl,’ ‘Annabelle’ This Weekend”. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  48. ^ McClintock, Pamela (October 5, 2014). “Box Office: David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ Tops ‘Annabelle’ With Career-Best $38M”. The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 18, 2014.
  49. ^ Kyle Buchanan; Lindsey Weber (October 7, 2014). “What Were the Best Parts of Gone Girl?”. Vulture. Retrieved December 4, 2014.
  50. ^ Turan, Kenneth (September 25, 2014). “‘Gone Girl’ finds David Fincher at delightfully twisted best”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  51. ^ F.S (October 3, 2014). “A perfect adaptation”. Prospero: Books, arts and culture. The Economist. Retrieved October 4, 2014.
  52. ^ Ed Gonzalez (September 27, 2014). “Film Review: Gone Girl”. Slant Magazine. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  53. ^ Maureen Dowd (12 October 2014), “Lady psychopaths welcome“, The New York Times, p. SR11.
  54. ^ “The 87th Academy Awards | 2015”. Oscars.org | Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  55. ^ “Winners & Nominees 2015”. www.goldenglobes.com. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  56. ^ “2015 Film Leading Actress | BAFTA Awards”. awards.bafta.org. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  57. ^ “National Board of Review Announces 2014 Award Winners”. National Board of Review. December 2, 2014. Retrieved October 3, 2020.
  58. ^ Gardener, Elysa (December 6, 2014). “The complete nominations list for the 57th Annual Grammy Awards”. USA. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  59. ^ “Best of 2014: Film Critic Top Ten Lists”. Metacritic.
  60. ^ Novid Parsi (February 7, 2013). “Gillian Flynn on Gone Girl – Interview”. Time Out Chicago. Time Out Media. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  61. ^ Cara Buckley (November 19, 2014). “Gone Girls, Found Talking With the Authors of ‘Gone Girl’ and ‘Wild'”. The New York Times. Retrieved November 20, 2014.
  62. ^ Natalie Wilson (October 3, 2014). “Blog: What’s Missing From the Gone Girl Debate? Privilege!”. Ms. Magazine. Ms. Magazine. Retrieved November 12, 2014.
  63. ^ Alyssa Rosenberg (October 3, 2014). “Is ‘Gone Girl’s Amy a misogynist? A misandrist? Or both?”. The Washington Post. Retrieved November 13, 2014.
  64. ^ Jump up to:a b Jessica Coen (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”. Jezebel. Kinja. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  65. ^ Eliana Dockterman (October 6, 2014). “Is Gone Girl Feminist or Misogynist?”. Time. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  66. ^ Heller, Zoë (December 4, 2014). “The Hard Work of Marriage”. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  67. ^ Jump up to:a b Joan Smith (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s recycling of rape myths is a disgusting distortion”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  68. ^ Emine Saner (October 7, 2014). “The Gone Girl backlash: what women don’t want”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  69. ^ Tim Kroenert (October 8, 2014). “Gone Girl promotes conversations about misogyny”. EurekaStreet.com.au. Jesuit Communications Australia. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  70. ^ “Rosamund Pike Will Return For Gone Girl 2 If This Person Does”. October 10, 2014.
  71. ^ Hawkes, Rebecca (January 13, 2015). “Gone Girl 2 ‘could happen'”. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

 Media related to Gone Girl at Wikimedia Commons

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Gone Girl (film)

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gone Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Fincher
Screenplay byGillian Flynn
Based onGone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Produced byArnon MilchanJoshua DonenReese WitherspoonCeán Chaffin
StarringBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisTyler PerryCarrie Coon
CinematographyJeff Cronenweth
Edited byKirk Baxter
Music byTrent ReznorAtticus Ross
Production
companies		Regency EnterprisesTSG Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release datesSeptember 26, 2014 (NYFF)[1]October 3, 2014 (United States)[1]
Running time149 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$369.3 million[3]

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon. In the film, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Pike) in Missouri.

Gone Girl premiered as the opening film at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $369 million worldwide against a $61 million budget, to become Fincher’s highest-grossing film. It is considered a postmodern mystery.[4][5]

Pike’s performance was widely acclaimed by critics, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Additional nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Flynn’s adapted screenplay, which won at Critics’ Choice.[6]

Plot[edit]

On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife, Amy, missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing Amy children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. The media suspect Nick due to his apathy towards Amy’s disappearance.

In the past, Amy revealed to Nick that Amazing Amy was a perfected version made up of the real Amy’s failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to support his dying mother. Nick became distant with Amy, and began cheating on Amy with Andie, one of his students, while Amy became resentful towards Nick for making her move to Missouri.

Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a murder. Boney discovers evidence of financial issues, spousal disputes, and Amy’s recent acquisition of a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy was pregnant, which Nick denies knowing of.

Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary. Amy, this year, had hidden items purchased with Nick’s credit card in the shed, as well as a diary that shows Amy’s growing dread and ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

Amy drives to a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick’s affair, she had conceived a plan to frame him for her murder. She misrepresented the relationship between herself and Nick by falsifying accounts in a diary. Unbeknownst to Nick, she had befriended her neighbor to tell her stories about Nick’s temper, and steal her urine to manipulate pregnancy results. She placed supporting evidence of Nick’s guilt in the clue spots for the “treasure hunt” to let the police find them. She also splattered her own blood across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She assumed that Nick would be executed for her murder, and planned to drown herself.

Nick deduces Amy’s plan and convinces his twin sister, Margo, of his innocence. He flies to New York City and hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, whom Amy had falsely accused of rape, by ostensible “rape wounds” on her vagina and evidence of O’Hara’s semen. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy had filed a restraining order for stalking, but Desi turns him away.

When Amy’s campground neighbors rob her, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she fled Nick’s abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show affirming his innocence and apologizes for his shortcomings as a spouse to lure Amy out of hiding. Boney believes she has enough evidence to arrest Nick for murder, but Bolt gets him out on bail. Amy realizes that Desi intends to keep her in the house to forcibly rekindle their relationship. Amy then uses Desi’s surveillance cameras to help make it appear that he kidnapped and raped her, slits his throat while they have sex, and returns home to Nick covered in Desi’s blood, clearing Nick of suspicion and framing Desi as the kidnapper after recounting a false account of their altercation to Boney.

When Boney brings up the inconsistencies with Amy’s account, she retorts by calling her incompetent. Amy tells Nick the truth and admits to Desi’s murder, saying that him pleading for her to come back is the man she wants. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but there is no evidence of her guilt.

Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals that she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick’s sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy’s insistence that they should remain married but feels responsible for the child and decides to stay married, despite Margo’s qualms. The couple then announces on television that they are expecting a child.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn at the film’s premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Gone Girl is a film adaptation of Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film’s executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn’s film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.[9]

Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: “I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through.”[10]

Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project.[11] Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn’s first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: “… he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie.”[12]

As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter series.[12] Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: “We don’t have the ability to gift the audience with the characters’ thoughts, so tell me how they’re behaving.”[13] During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher “big swaths” of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten “a dozen times”, while other scenes were unaltered.[10]

Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she “wasn’t ever precious about cutting.” As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne’s dead mother.[14]

In terms of the film’s ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a “lot of iterations”. One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the “third player”, alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn’s words: “Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn’t want 8 million more loop-de-loops … I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there.”[12]

Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher’s involvement, as he “really liked the book and didn’t want to turn it into something other than what it already was”, and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself.[11] Fincher described Flynn’s screenwriting work as “very smart”, “crafty”, and “extremely articulate”.[10][13]

Filming[edit]

On September 11, 2013, the Gone Girl film crew began filming establishing shots.[15] Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks.[16][17] Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles,[17] with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.[18]

According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene,[19] while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.[14]

Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.[20][21][22]

Fincher later called Affleck “extremely bright” in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck “has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is”. Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as “tragedy vampirism”, but clarified that “The New York Times and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house”.[13]

Fashion[edit]

The lead costume designer in Gone Girl is Trish Summerville.[23] Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[24] Summerville told InStyle magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy’s clothing to look contemporary due to the film’s present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells[24] that figuring out what Nick and Amy’s ‘everyday life’ is like was one of her biggest challenges.[24] As a result of Amy’s self proclaimed ‘cool girl’ status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy’s pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just “kind of not that girl.”[24] This is also exemplified through Amy’s jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating ‘A’ to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.

Nick Dunne’s character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck’s larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts.[24] The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.[24]

When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy’s wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.

Music[edit]

Main article: Gone Girl (soundtrack)Trent Reznor co-wrote the film’s score.

On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score,[25] marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher’s request in an interview:

David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthentically trying to make him feel OK, and that became a perfect metaphor for this film … The challenge was, simply, what is the musical equivalent of the same sort of facade of comfort and a feeling of insincerity that that music represented? [My primary aim was] to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren’t always what they seem to be.[26]

The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality.[27] NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: “Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it’ll make the brutal moments of Gone Girl all the more harrowing.”[28] Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song “She“, which was used in the film’s teaser trailer.[29][30] The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.[28]

Release[edit]

Affleck and Pike at the film’s premiere

Gone Girl opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, Gone Girl released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.[31]

Home media[edit]

Gone Girl was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015.[32] The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page Amazing Amy book called Tattle Tale.[33] An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.[34]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Gone Girl grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million.[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.[35]

The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day[36][37] (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings).[38][39] It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema‘s horror film Annabelle which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher’s career (breaking Panic Room‘s opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind Pearl Harbor ($59.1 million), and Daredevil ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike’s second biggest opening—behind Die Another Day ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old.[40] The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with Dracula Untold in its second weekend[41] before being overtaken by Fury in its third weekend.[42]

Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected.[31] High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million),[43] Australia ($4.6 million),[43] France ($3.65 million)[44] Russia ($3.4 million),[43] and Germany ($2.6 million).[43]

Critical response[edit]

Rosamund Pike‘s performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gone Girl received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike’s performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, Gone Girl plays to director David Fincher’s sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.”[45] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.[46] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.[47][48]

The Vulture‘s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle.[49] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, Gone Girl shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched.”[50] The Economist called the film a “brilliantly glacial adaptation … This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation”.[51]

Joshua Rothman wrote in The New Yorker that he enjoyed the film “in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory” and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is “decisively unreal … [the] heroes and villains in Fincher’s Gone Girl aren’t people but stories”. Rothman, who draws parallels between Gone Girl and Fincher’s 1999 adaptation Fight Club, decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses “a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us”.[5]

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: “At first blush, Gone Girl is natural Fincherland … so why doesn’t the movie claw us as The Social Network did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?”[7] Slant Magazine‘s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: “Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his Gone Girl as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial.”[52]

In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, “The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn’t keep it up, so they destroy each other”.[53]

Accolades[edit]

Main article: List of accolades received by Gone Girl (film)

Gone Girl garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike’s performance, Flynn’s screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress.[54] The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score.[55] Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).[56] The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year,[57] and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[58]

Top ten lists[edit]

Gone Girl was listed on many critics’ top ten lists.[59]

Themes[edit]

Gender[edit]

In a 2013 interview with Time Out magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as “polarizing”, Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that “women are naturally good” and to show that women are “just as violently minded as men are”.[60] In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: “I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: ‘I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.’ And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written.”[61]

In an October 3, 2014, blog post for Ms. Magazine, Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy’s social privilege which affords her the “necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time” to stage a disappearance—Gone Girl is the “crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior.”[62] Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in The Washington Post on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially “unconvinced” by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that “Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist.”[63]

In an October 6, 2014, article titled “Gone Girl‘s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”, Jezebel‘s Jessica Coen wrote: “Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy’s complexities and you’re left with little more than ‘crazy fucking bitch.’ That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel.”[64] Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, “as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices.”[64] Time‘s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that Gone Girl is both “a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman” and a “feminist manifesto”, and that this duality makes the film interesting.[65] Zoë Heller of The New York Review of Books wrote: “The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn’t really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness”, concluding that “The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper ‘disapproval’: only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success.”[66]

Writing in The Guardian on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film’s “recycling of rape myths“, citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare.[67] She wrote: “The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she’s been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers.”[67] Writing for The Guardian on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith’s argument “wouldn’t carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women’s stories, and characters in mainstream culture”, but concluded with Dockterman’s plea for the portrayal of “all sorts of women in our novels”.[68]

Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film’s predominant focus upon Nick’s perspective “serves to obfuscate Amy’s motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of … anti-women myths”; however, Kroenert concludes that Gone Girl is “a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage.”[69]

Potential sequel[edit]

In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script.[70] In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be “a few years down the road” when the original cast and crew would be available again.[71]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

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  65. ^ Eliana Dockterman (October 6, 2014). “Is Gone Girl Feminist or Misogynist?”. Time. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  66. ^ Heller, Zoë (December 4, 2014). “The Hard Work of Marriage”. The New York Review of Books. Retrieved December 21, 2014.
  67. ^ Jump up to:a b Joan Smith (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s recycling of rape myths is a disgusting distortion”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  68. ^ Emine Saner (October 7, 2014). “The Gone Girl backlash: what women don’t want”. The Guardian. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  69. ^ Tim Kroenert (October 8, 2014). “Gone Girl promotes conversations about misogyny”. EurekaStreet.com.au. Jesuit Communications Australia. Archived from the original on June 26, 2019. Retrieved December 6, 2014.
  70. ^ “Rosamund Pike Will Return For Gone Girl 2 If This Person Does”. October 10, 2014.
  71. ^ Hawkes, Rebecca (January 13, 2015). “Gone Girl 2 ‘could happen'”. The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on January 11, 2022.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

 Media related to Gone Girl at Wikimedia Commons

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Gone Girl
Theatrical release poster
Directed byDavid Fincher
Screenplay byGillian Flynn
Based onGone Girl
by Gillian Flynn
Produced byArnon MilchanJoshua DonenReese WitherspoonCeán Chaffin
StarringBen AffleckRosamund PikeNeil Patrick HarrisTyler PerryCarrie Coon
CinematographyJeff Cronenweth
Edited byKirk Baxter
Music byTrent ReznorAtticus Ross
Production
companies		Regency EnterprisesTSG Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release datesSeptember 26, 2014 (NYFF)[1]October 3, 2014 (United States)[1]
Running time149 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$61 million[3]
Box office$369.3 million[3]

Gone Girl is a 2014 American psychological thriller film directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn, based on her 2012 novel of the same name. It stars Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, and Carrie Coon. In the film, Nick Dunne (Affleck) becomes the prime suspect in the sudden disappearance of his wife, Amy (Pike) in Missouri.

Gone Girl premiered as the opening film at the 52nd New York Film Festival on September 26, 2014, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 3, 2014 by 20th Century Fox. It was a critical and commercial success, grossing $369 million worldwide against a $61 million budget, to become Fincher’s highest-grossing film. It is considered a postmodern mystery.[4][5]

Pike’s performance was widely acclaimed by critics, and she received nominations for an Academy Award, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actress. Additional nominations included a Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Fincher and Golden Globe Award, BAFTA, and Critics’ Choice Award nominations for Flynn’s adapted screenplay, which won at Critics’ Choice.[6]

Plot[edit]

On their fifth wedding anniversary, writing teacher Nick Dunne returns home to find his wife, Amy, missing. Her disappearance receives press coverage, as Amy was the inspiration for her parents’ popular Amazing Amy children’s books. Detective Rhonda Boney finds poorly concealed evidence of a struggle in the house. The media suspect Nick due to his apathy towards Amy’s disappearance.

In the past, Amy revealed to Nick that Amazing Amy was a perfected version made up of the real Amy’s failures. Their marriage disintegrated over time; both lost their jobs in the recession and moved from New York City to Nick’s hometown of North Carthage, Missouri, to support his dying mother. Nick became distant with Amy, and began cheating on Amy with Andie, one of his students, while Amy became resentful towards Nick for making her move to Missouri.

Forensic analysis of the house uncovers cleaned bloodstains, indicating a murder. Boney discovers evidence of financial issues, spousal disputes, and Amy’s recent acquisition of a gun. Medical reports indicate that Amy was pregnant, which Nick denies knowing of.

Amy and Nick had played treasure hunt games on every wedding anniversary. Amy, this year, had hidden items purchased with Nick’s credit card in the shed, as well as a diary that shows Amy’s growing dread and ending with the fear that Nick will kill her.

Amy drives to a campground in the Ozarks. Upon discovering Nick’s affair, she had conceived a plan to frame him for her murder. She misrepresented the relationship between herself and Nick by falsifying accounts in a diary. Unbeknownst to Nick, she had befriended her neighbor to tell her stories about Nick’s temper, and steal her urine to manipulate pregnancy results. She placed supporting evidence of Nick’s guilt in the clue spots for the “treasure hunt” to let the police find them. She also splattered her own blood across the kitchen, and cleaned it haphazardly. She assumed that Nick would be executed for her murder, and planned to drown herself.

Nick deduces Amy’s plan and convinces his twin sister, Margo, of his innocence. He flies to New York City and hires Tanner Bolt, a lawyer known for representing men accused of killing their wives. Nick also meets Amy’s ex-boyfriend Tommy O’Hara, whom Amy had falsely accused of rape, by ostensible “rape wounds” on her vagina and evidence of O’Hara’s semen. Nick approaches another ex-boyfriend, the wealthy Desi Collings, against whom Amy had filed a restraining order for stalking, but Desi turns him away.

When Amy’s campground neighbors rob her, she calls Desi for help, convincing him that she fled Nick’s abuse. Desi agrees to hide her in his lake house. After Andie reveals their affair at a press conference, Nick appears on a talk show affirming his innocence and apologizes for his shortcomings as a spouse to lure Amy out of hiding. Boney believes she has enough evidence to arrest Nick for murder, but Bolt gets him out on bail. Amy realizes that Desi intends to keep her in the house to forcibly rekindle their relationship. Amy then uses Desi’s surveillance cameras to help make it appear that he kidnapped and raped her, slits his throat while they have sex, and returns home to Nick covered in Desi’s blood, clearing Nick of suspicion and framing Desi as the kidnapper after recounting a false account of their altercation to Boney.

When Boney brings up the inconsistencies with Amy’s account, she retorts by calling her incompetent. Amy tells Nick the truth and admits to Desi’s murder, saying that him pleading for her to come back is the man she wants. Nick shares this with Boney, Bolt, and Margo, but there is no evidence of her guilt.

Nick intends to leave Amy, but she reveals that she is pregnant, having inseminated herself with Nick’s sperm stored at a fertility clinic. Nick reacts violently to Amy’s insistence that they should remain married but feels responsible for the child and decides to stay married, despite Margo’s qualms. The couple then announces on television that they are expecting a child.

Cast[edit]

Production[edit]

Development[edit]

David Fincher and Gillian Flynn at the film’s premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival

Gone Girl is a film adaptation of Flynn’s 2012 novel of the same name. One of the film’s executive producers, Leslie Dixon, read the manuscript of the novel in 2011 and brought it to the attention of Reese Witherspoon (who was originally slated to play Amy) in December of that year. Witherspoon and Dixon then collaborated with Bruna Papandrea to further develop the manuscript—with Flynn’s film agent, Shari Smiley, they met with film studios in early 2012.[9]

Following the release of the novel in June 2012, the 20th Century Fox studio optioned the book in a deal with Flynn, in which the author negotiated that she would be responsible for the first draft of the screenplay. By around October 2012, Flynn was engaged in the production of the first draft while she was also involved in the promotional tour for her novel. Then a first-time screenwriter, Flynn later admitted: “I certainly felt at sea a lot of times, kind of finding my way through.”[10]

Flynn submitted her first draft screenplay to the Fox studio in December 2012, before Fincher was selected as the director for the project.[11] Fincher had already expressed interest in the project, and after he finished reading Flynn’s first draft, a meeting was scheduled between the director and author within days. Typically, authors are removed from film adaptations following the first draft and an experienced screenwriter takes over; but, on this occasion, Fincher agreed to work with Flynn for the entire project. Flynn later explained: “… he [Fincher] responded to the first draft and we have kind of similar sensibilities. We liked the same things about the book, and we wanted the same thing out of the movie.”[12]

As further preparation, Flynn studied screenplay books and also met with Steve Kloves, who wrote the scripts for the Harry Potter series.[12] Fincher also provided guidance and advised the author: “We don’t have the ability to gift the audience with the characters’ thoughts, so tell me how they’re behaving.”[13] During the production of the final screenplay, Fincher and Flynn engaged in an intensive back-and-forth working relationship: Flynn sent Fincher “big swaths” of writing, which he then reviewed, and Fincher would then discuss the swaths with Flynn by telephone. Eventually, some scenes were rewritten “a dozen times”, while other scenes were unaltered.[10]

Following the release of the film, Flynn spoke of an overwhelming adaptation process, in which she tackled a 500-page book with an intricate plot; she explained that her experience working for a magazine meant that she “wasn’t ever precious about cutting.” As a consequence of the distillation process, most of the parental storylines were lost, so the mother of the character of Desi Collings does not appear in the film, and it was not possible to include flashbacks of Nick Dunne’s dead mother.[14]

In terms of the film’s ending, Flynn revealed that she experimented with a “lot of iterations”. One of the aspects that she was certain of was the presence of the media, which she described as the “third player”, alongside Nick and Amy. In Flynn’s words: “Once we got to the ending, I wanted it to wrap up quickly. I didn’t want 8 million more loop-de-loops … I had no problem tossing stuff out and trying to figure out the best way to get there.”[12]

Flynn enjoyed the experience of making the film, and she expressed appreciation for Fincher’s involvement, as he “really liked the book and didn’t want to turn it into something other than what it already was”, and he also reassured her, even when she second-guessed herself.[11] Fincher described Flynn’s screenwriting work as “very smart”, “crafty”, and “extremely articulate”.[10][13]

Filming[edit]

On September 11, 2013, the Gone Girl film crew began filming establishing shots.[15] Principal photography began on September 15 in Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and was scheduled to last about five weeks.[16][17] Some interior scenes were filmed in Los Angeles,[17] with a door that could not be replicated being shipped there from Cape Girardeau.[18]

According to producer Ceán Chaffin, Fincher took, on average, as many as 50 takes for each scene,[19] while Flynn has said that, although Fincher is a visual director, he is meticulous about veracity—Fincher changed a scene in which Amy collects her own blood, as he thought it was unbelievable.[14]

Production was shut down for four days when Affleck, a Boston Red Sox fan, refused to wear a New York Yankees cap for a scene. Eventually, Fincher and Affleck reached a compromise and Affleck wore a New York Mets hat for the scene.[20][21][22]

Fincher later called Affleck “extremely bright” in regard to the manner in which he drew on his own experience with the media for the character of Nick Dunne. Fincher explained that Affleck “has a great sense of humor and great wit about what this situation is and how frustrating it is”. Fincher described the behavior of the media in the film as “tragedy vampirism”, but clarified that “The New York Times and NPR are not in the flowerbeds of the Dunne house”.[13]

Fashion[edit]

The lead costume designer in Gone Girl is Trish Summerville.[23] Summerville has worked with director David Fincher as the costume designer for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.[24] Summerville told InStyle magazine, that she wanted Nick and Amy’s clothing to look contemporary due to the film’s present day setting, yet understated and simple as to illustrate the idea that Nick and Amy are a regular and unassuming couple. Summerville goes on to explain that she wanted the clothes to look like everyday life as if they ordered them online or bought them at the mall, she tells[24] that figuring out what Nick and Amy’s ‘everyday life’ is like was one of her biggest challenges.[24] As a result of Amy’s self proclaimed ‘cool girl’ status, her costumes directly reflect the traditionally chic yet girl-next-door attitude. Amy’s pieces can be seen as more timeless over high fashion and trendy as Summerville explains that Amy is just “kind of not that girl.”[24] This is also exemplified through Amy’s jewelry; she wears a Rose Gold Cartier Love bracelet as well as a necklace containing a floating ‘A’ to show how Amy holds onto keepsakes from the past.

Nick Dunne’s character is also more simple in the way he presents himself. Summerville wanted to dress him in simple yet well-fitting suits and found that designer suits fit best due to actor Ben Affleck’s larger build. Nick Dunne can be seen wearing suits from Dolce & Gabbana, as well as Prada shirts.[24] The shirt that Nick puts on when he comes home to find his wife missing is an important piece in the film because he does not take this shirt off for the days following. The infamous blue shirt Nick wears is a blue button-up designed by Steven Alan, paired with J brand jeans.[24]

When Amy and Nick move to Missouri, Summerville made minor changes to Amy’s wardrobe in order to signify change. She wears more muted colors, more jeans, and less high-heels.

Music[edit]

Main article: Gone Girl (soundtrack)Trent Reznor co-wrote the film’s score.

On January 21, 2014, Trent Reznor announced that he and Atticus Ross would provide the score,[25] marking their third collaboration with Fincher, following The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Fincher was inspired by music he heard while at an appointment with a chiropractor and tasked Reznor with creating the musical equivalent of an insincere façade. Reznor explained Fincher’s request in an interview:

David [Fincher] was at the chiropractor and heard this music that was inauthentically trying to make him feel OK, and that became a perfect metaphor for this film … The challenge was, simply, what is the musical equivalent of the same sort of facade of comfort and a feeling of insincerity that that music represented? [My primary aim was] to instill doubt [and] remind you that things aren’t always what they seem to be.[26]

The overall score is a combination of soothing sounds with staccato electronic noises, resulting in an unnerving, anxiety-provoking quality.[27] NPR writer Andy Beta concludes: “Reznor and Ross relish being at their most beauteous, knowing that it’ll make the brutal moments of Gone Girl all the more harrowing.”[28] Richard Butler of The Psychedelic Furs sang a cover version of the song “She“, which was used in the film’s teaser trailer.[29][30] The soundtrack album was released on the Columbia label on September 30, 2014.[28]

Release[edit]

Affleck and Pike at the film’s premiere

Gone Girl opened the 52nd New York Film Festival, receiving high-profile press coverage and early positive reviews. It saw a nationwide release in North America in 3,014 theatres on October 3, 2014. Coinciding with the North America release, Gone Girl released at 5,270 screens in 39 international markets like the United Kingdom and Germany, on its opening weekend.[31]

Home media[edit]

Gone Girl was released on DVD and Blu-ray on January 13, 2015.[32] The Blu-ray release comes with a 36-page Amazing Amy book called Tattle Tale.[33] An audio commentary with Fincher is the sole special feature included on the DVD/Blu-ray.[34]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Gone Girl grossed $167.8 million in the U.S. and Canada and $201.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $369.3 million, against a production budget of $61 million.[3] Calculating in all expenses, Deadline Hollywood estimated that the film made a profit of $129.99 million, making it one of the most profitable films of 2014.[35]

The film was released on October 3, 2014, in North America in 3,014 theaters and earned $13.1 million on its opening day[36][37] (including the $1.3 million it earned from Thursday late-night showings).[38][39] It finished in first place at the North American box office earning $37.5 million after a neck-and-neck competition with Warner Bros./New Line Cinema‘s horror film Annabelle which earned $37.1 million. The film is the biggest debut of Fincher’s career (breaking Panic Room‘s opening). It was also the third biggest opening weekend for Affleck—behind Pearl Harbor ($59.1 million), and Daredevil ($40.3 million)—and Rosamund Pike’s second biggest opening—behind Die Another Day ($47 million). The film is the tenth biggest October debut overall. The film played 60% female and 75% over-25 years old.[40] The film topped the box office for two consecutive weekends despite facing competition with Dracula Untold in its second weekend[41] before being overtaken by Fury in its third weekend.[42]

Outside North America, it earned $24.6 million from 5,270 screens in 39 international markets on its opening weekend, higher than expected.[31] High openings were witnessed in the United Kingdom ($6.7 million),[43] Australia ($4.6 million),[43] France ($3.65 million)[44] Russia ($3.4 million),[43] and Germany ($2.6 million).[43]

Critical response[edit]

Rosamund Pike‘s performance garnered widespread critical acclaim and earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

Gone Girl received largely positive reviews from critics, with Pike’s performance in particular earning widespread acclaim. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 88%, based on 368 reviews, with an average rating of 8/10. The website’s critical consensus reads: “Dark, intelligent, and stylish to a fault, Gone Girl plays to director David Fincher’s sick strengths while bringing the best out of stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike.”[45] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 79 out of 100, based on 49 critics, indicating “generally favorable reviews”.[46] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a B grade.[47][48]

The Vulture‘s critics praised the direction, screenplay, editing, score, visual style, and acting, particularly from Pike, Affleck, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, and Missi Pyle.[49] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “Superbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, Gone Girl shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched.”[50] The Economist called the film a “brilliantly glacial adaptation … This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation”.[51]

Joshua Rothman wrote in The New Yorker that he enjoyed the film “in all its abstract, intellectual, postmodern glory” and that, similar to other postmodern narratives, the film adaptation is “decisively unreal … [the] heroes and villains in Fincher’s Gone Girl aren’t people but stories”. Rothman, who draws parallels between Gone Girl and Fincher’s 1999 adaptation Fight Club, decides that the film is ultimately a farce and has resonated with filmgoers because it expresses “a creepy, confused, and troubling part of us”.[5]

Anthony Lane of The New Yorker wrote: “At first blush, Gone Girl is natural Fincherland … so why doesn’t the movie claw us as The Social Network did? Who could have predicted that a film about murder, betrayal, and deception would be less exciting than a film about a website?”[7] Slant Magazine‘s Ed Gonzalez awarded the film two out of four stars, concluding: “Fincher and Flynn should have gone further and truly grappled with the real horror that, by giving his relationship with Amy another chance, Nick is indulging in one of the great myths of feminism: that it emasculates men. Rather than undermine that noxiousness, Fincher enshrouds it in funereal brushstrokes that cast his Gone Girl as a fashionable tumbling into an abyss of willful denial.”[52]

In response to some of the criticisms of the film, Flynn said, “The whole point is that these are two people pretending to be other people, better people, versions of the dream guy and dream girl, but each one couldn’t keep it up, so they destroy each other”.[53]

Accolades[edit]

Main article: List of accolades received by Gone Girl (film)

Gone Girl garnered awards and nominations in a variety of categories with praise for its direction, Pike’s performance, Flynn’s screenplay, and its soundtrack. At the 87th Academy Awards, Pike received a nomination for Best Actress.[54] The film received four nominations at the 72nd Golden Globe Awards: Best Director for Fincher, Best Actress in a Drama for Pike, Best Screenplay for Flynn, and Best Original Score.[55] Pike received a nomination for Best Actress at the 68th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs).[56] The National Board of Review included the film in their list of top ten films of the year,[57] and the soundtrack was nominated for the 2015 Grammy Award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media.[58]

Top ten lists[edit]

Gone Girl was listed on many critics’ top ten lists.[59]

Themes[edit]

Gender[edit]

In a 2013 interview with Time Out magazine writer Novid Parsi, who described the ending of the novel as “polarizing”, Flynn explained that she wanted the novel to counter the notion that “women are naturally good” and to show that women are “just as violently minded as men are”.[60] In a November 2014 interview, Flynn admitted that the critical gender-related response did affect her: “I had about 24 hours where I hovered under my covers and was like: ‘I killed feminism. Why did I do that? Rats. I did not mean to do that.’ And then I very quickly kind of felt comfortable with what I had written.”[61]

In an October 3, 2014, blog post for Ms. Magazine, Natalie Wilson argues that by not addressing Amy’s social privilege which affords her the “necessary funds, skills, know-how and spare time” to stage a disappearance—Gone Girl is the “crystallization of a thousand misogynist myths and fears about female behavior.”[62] Alyssa Rosenberg wrote in The Washington Post on October 3, 2014, that, although she was initially “unconvinced” by the book, her fascination with the novel and film was partly due to her conclusion that “Amy Elliot Dunne is the only fictional character I can think of who might be accurately described as simultaneously misogynist and misandrist.”[63]

In an October 6, 2014, article titled “Gone Girl‘s Biggest Villain Is Marriage Itself”, Jezebel‘s Jessica Coen wrote: “Movie Amy pales in comparison to the vivid character we meet in the book. Strip away Book Amy’s complexities and you’re left with little more than ‘crazy fucking bitch.’ That makes her no less captivating, but it does make the film feel a lot more misogynistic than the novel.”[64] Coen concedes that this did not negate her enjoyment of the film, “as we ladies are well accustomed to these injustices.”[64] Time‘s Eliana Dockterman wrote on the same date that Gone Girl is both “a sexist portrayal of a crazy woman” and a “feminist manifesto”, and that this duality makes the film interesting.[65] Zoë Heller of The New York Review of Books wrote: “The problem with Amy is not that she acts in vicious and reprehensible ways, or even that her behavior lends credence to certain misogynist fantasies. The problem is that she isn’t really a character, but rather an animation of a not very interesting idea about the female capacity for nastiness”, concluding that “The film is a piece of silliness, not powerful enough in the end to engender proper ‘disapproval’: only wonder at its coarseness and perhaps mild dismay at its critical success.”[66]

Writing in The Guardian on October 6, 2014, Joan Smith criticized what she saw as the film’s “recycling of rape myths“, citing research released in 2013 which stated that false allegations of rape in the UK were extremely rare.[67] She wrote: “The characters live in a parallel universe where the immediate reaction to a woman who says she’s been assaulted is one of chivalrous concern. Tell that to all the victims, here and in the US, who have had their claims dismissed by sceptical police officers.”[67] Writing for The Guardian on the following day, Emine Saner wrote that Smith’s argument “wouldn’t carry as much weight were this film set against a vastly wider range of women’s stories, and characters in mainstream culture”, but concluded with Dockterman’s plea for the portrayal of “all sorts of women in our novels”.[68]

Tim Kroenert, of the Australian website Eureka Street wrote on October 8, 2014, that the film’s predominant focus upon Nick’s perspective “serves to obfuscate Amy’s motives (though it is possible that she is simply a sociopath), and to amplify her personification of … anti-women myths”; however, Kroenert concludes that Gone Girl is “a compelling rumination on the impossibility of knowing the mind of another, even within that ostensibly most intimate of relationships, marriage.”[69]

Potential sequel[edit]

In an interview in October 2014, Rosamund Pike stated she would return for a sequel if Gillian Flynn wrote the script.[70] In January 2015, Flynn said she was open to the idea of a sequel, but said it would be “a few years down the road” when the original cast and crew would be available again.[71]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Jump up to:a b Pond, Steve (July 16, 2014). “David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’ to Open New York Film Festival”. TheWrap. Retrieved July 17, 2014.
  2. ^ “GONE GIRL (18)”. British Board of Film Classification. September 25, 2014. Retrieved September 25, 2014.
  3. ^ Jump up to:a b c “Gone Girl (2014)”. Box Office Mojo. IMDb. January 21, 2015. Retrieved December 31, 2014.
  4. ^ “Postmodern Mystery”. www.postmodernmystery.com. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  5. ^ Jump up to:a b Rothman, Joshua (October 8, 2014). “What “Gone Girl” Is Really About”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 26, 2020.
  6. ^ “Golden Globe: ‘Birdman,’ ‘Boyhood’ and ‘Imitation Game’ Top Nominations”. Variety. December 11, 2014. Retrieved December 11, 2014.
  7. ^ Jump up to:a b c Lane, Anthony. “Theydunnit”. The New Yorker. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  8. ^ “Nancy Grace Reveals What She Really Thinks About ‘Gone Girl’ — to the Actress Who Played Her”. The Hollywood Reporter. December 12, 2014.
  9. ^ Cohen, Stefanie (July 19, 2013). “A Surprise Hit Spawns a Movie Deal”. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved January 21, 2014.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c Gina McIntyre (September 5, 2014). “Thrills, chills for Gillian Flynn in adapting ‘Gone Girl'”. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  11. ^ Jump up to:a b “Author Gillian Flynn says filming ‘Gone Girl’ went much better than expected”. kansascity. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Joe Berkowitz (October 3, 2014). “How Gillian Flynn Adapted Her Biggest Novel, ‘Gone Girl,’ Into Her First Screenplay”. Fast CoCreate. Monsueto Ventures. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b c Cornish, Audie (October 2, 2014). “David Fincher Talks ‘Gone Girl,’ Avoids Spoilers (Hooray!)”. NPR. NPR. Retrieved November 15, 2014.
  14. ^ Jump up to:a b Jennifer Vineyard (October 6, 2014). “Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn on Cool Girls and David Fincher”. Vulture. New York Media LLC. Retrieved November 16, 2014.
  15. ^ “Gone Girl starts filming in Cape Girardeau”. KFVS12.com. September 12, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  16. ^ “Gone Girl movie filming scenes in Cape Girardeau”. KansasCity.com. September 11, 2013. Archived from the original on September 16, 2013. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b “Producer: Gone Girl filming here”. semissourian.com. September 11, 2013. Retrieved September 13, 2013.
  18. ^ Hansen, Kristine (July 7, 2017). “Get the ‘Gone Girl’ House Before It Vanishes From the Market”. Realtor.com.
  19. ^ “GONE GIRL Movie Review”. Lasvegas.informermg.com. Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
  20. ^ Buckley, Cara (October 2, 2014). “Ben Affleck and David Fincher’s Spat in a Hat”.
  21. ^ Rafferty, Scott (July 10, 2015). “Ben Affleck Shut Down ‘Gone Girl’ Filming Over a Yankees Cap”. Rolling Stone.
  22. ^ Jagernauth, Kevin (October 3, 2014). “David Fincher And Ben Affleck Beefed Over A New York Yankees Hat On The Set Of ‘Gone Girl'”.
  23. ^ “Gone Girl (2014)”, IMDb, retrieved March 5, 2021
  24. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f “6 Things You Need to Know About Gone Girl’s Costumes”. InStyle. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  25. ^ “Twitter / trent_reznor: and yes, Atticus and I are”. Twitter.com. January 21, 2014. Retrieved March 3, 2014.
  26. ^ Leah Pickett (October 2, 2014). “Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross – Gone Girl OST”. Consequence of Sound. Townsquare Music. Retrieved November 11, 2014.
  27. ^ “In ‘Gone Girl’ music, Reznor aims ‘to instill doubt'”. USA Today. Retrieved November 4, 2014.
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Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]

 Media related to Gone Girl at Wikimedia Commons

showvteGillian Flynn
showvteFilms directed by David Fincher
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