I haven’t
seen Ben Affleck around for a while. Last time I saw him it was in Argo. Then
he was in To The Wonder by Terrance Malik (to my utter mortification I haven’t
seen that film yet. And I call myself a Terrance Malik fan.) Then he was in Runner
Runner which I also missed (reviews online tell me I haven’t missed much but
then again, they may just be being mean) and then this happened. Gone Girl
quite literally happened to the cinema scene over here, at one point I remember
being almost physically sick to the back teeth of seeing posters of it
and the bestselling book that inspired it literally everywhere. It was enough
to put you off the film all together. I don’t know what it is – although I do
know I’m not alone in this – the moment a film or a book gets lauded everywhere
as the best thing in recent history I am apt to be rather snobbish and think I probably
would hate it. It lead to me refusing to watch Forest Gump for more years than
I would care to admit (it’s in the double digits – let’s leave it at that). As
you can see though I am doing my best to put that bad habit behind me and focus
on “being in the moment” as far as cinema goes.
When Nick
Dunne (Ben Affleck) calls the police to report his wife missing the police take
it seriously. It looks like a tale told many, many times before. Seemingly perfect
and beautiful couple hit by tragedy, said tragedy throwing open closet doors
and dragging out skeletons, and Nick Dunne looking more and more as if he has
murdered his wife and done away with the body… What they are not taking into
account is the fact that Amy (Rosamund Pike) is by no stretch of the
imagination your average, over the horizon and happily ever after kind of wife
to go and get herself murdered like some cliché...
I am glad I
went ahead and watched Gone Girl. It had a lot going for it, not least the fact
that it had been directed by one of my favourite directors, David Fincher. He
is the mind behind two of my favourite films ever – Fight Club and Se7en – and
his dark and twisted universe comes to the surface once again with
bone-chilling vividness. I love a good psychological murder mystery. But being
into “crime films” has its own ups and downs, there is a lot in the genre but
the really good stuff is few and far between, not least because there are SO
many clichés out there. This fella is a truly extraordinary work of art from
end to end that will, I have no doubt, a long –term place in all those “best”
film lists that crop up here there and everywhere. It definitely has a place in
my heart as a critic.
Gone Girl achieves
something else I truly loved about previous Fincher films. The constant sense
of brooding that spreads all the way through the film, not letting you relax
for one minute. In a film like Fight Club this effect depends on the constantly
dark and “off the wall” feel of the setting, the constant darkness gives us a
sense that there is something lurking in it. With Gone Girl however, the
surroundings are anything but dark. Usually bright airy and pastel colour
schemes and almost picture perfect settings are used to simply feel that this
is all a little too… Right… The darkness is not in the visual realm but in what
is possibly the darkest place they can hide, inside the human mind. This,
children, is where the true terror begins.
That, of
course, is in the story’s universe. In our universe, when we need to create
this effect, the surest place to start is a strong cast. Now this is going to
be a spoiler for those of you who haven’t seen the film yet (and I do apologise
for it but it’s something I simply MUST gush about) Rosamund Pike plays one
heck of a villain. Now the whole police and murder and mystery angle might put
some viewers off if they’re not fans of the genre but in actual fact the film
is nigh on 2.5 hours solid of mind games, unreliable narrators and shifting
sands. Kudos to both Pike and Affleck who do not miss a beat or indeed an opportunity
to confuse and confound us in this story of many twists and turns… There was a potential
for mistake when structuring this story – a too perfect villain is almost as
annoying as a too perfect hero. Especially since (extreme spoiler alert) Amy
ultimately “wins” in the end. Fincher does however make her a bit less than perfect
– bad planning and coincidence get the better of her in the second half of the
film, forcing her to change her plan entirely. I do get annoyed with people who
do eye-rolls at coincidences by the way. I mean sure, you can’t base an entire
film on them. That does not however mean that they shouldn’t exist at all. I
mean good heavens, real life is full of coincidences, how unrealistic would it
be if there were absolutely none ever in any story we ever told… Fincher stays
faithful to this realism by letting Amy win in the end too. I mean let’s face
it kids – the good guys don’t win EVERY fight in the real world…
You will
have spotted by this point that I love a good plot twist. I love a film that
really and truly fucks with your brain. If you, like me, enjoy a good game of
mental chess, look no further than Gone Girl. It’s one of the best examples of
it to come out in years.
Kayıtlar
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder