Gone Girl...
<FILM RANT>
This will be a quick one.
I remember a few years ago when reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was a thing people did, then talked about. Somehow during all this the only thing I ever heard was the basic premise: man comes home to find wife of five years missing; shit gets complicated. Turns out going in blind is both a perfect way to see David Fincher's film adaptation of the book, and also ever so slightly a problem. Fincher and his crew are in fine form, and the somewhat unusual casting choices turn out to be perfect (Rosamund Pike in particular is utterly fantastic here, and Tyler Perry has not only finally shown up in a film I'm happy to watch but actually does a very good job). The film is carefully and meticulously crafted in the way we've come to expect from everyone involved.
Then there's the source material. And here's the problem.
I suspect the book is very good at what it does. The problem here? I can't tell you what it does. At all. Which means I can't really tell you what kind of film you're walking in to. Neither can the trailers, or most (good) reviews. In fact, reviews should generally be avoided just in case. Does this mean you could walk into a movie you really don't like? Yes. That's the cost of doing business with this one. It also means that expectations are very hard to set here. So let me just say this: On a scale which starts with the deadly serious Zodiac and continues with the careful but ever-so-slightly crazy The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this film is a notch or two further along. I can guarantee you a quality crafted experience. I cannot guarantee you that the source material won't lose your goodwill at some point if you're expecting something this isn't. This is not a thriller in the conventional sense. It's a hard hearted, cynical, borderline-misanthropic movie. It also has its fair touch of satire and is in some ways a deep, deep black comedy, though take that last claim too seriously and you'll likely look at me like I'm crazy once you've seen it. Point is there's a lot going on here that you don't want to know about beforehand, but would do well to loosen your genre expectations a little.
Having said all that, is it actually any good? Hell yes. It'd be worth it if only for the after-movie conversation, which was animated and profuse as people were leaving the theatre. My own initial reaction is one I have not had in a quite a while, verbalised thusly:
"What in the ACTUAL FUCK did I just watch??"
I can think of no higher praise.
This will be a quick one.
I remember a few years ago when reading Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn was a thing people did, then talked about. Somehow during all this the only thing I ever heard was the basic premise: man comes home to find wife of five years missing; shit gets complicated. Turns out going in blind is both a perfect way to see David Fincher's film adaptation of the book, and also ever so slightly a problem. Fincher and his crew are in fine form, and the somewhat unusual casting choices turn out to be perfect (Rosamund Pike in particular is utterly fantastic here, and Tyler Perry has not only finally shown up in a film I'm happy to watch but actually does a very good job). The film is carefully and meticulously crafted in the way we've come to expect from everyone involved.
Then there's the source material. And here's the problem.
I suspect the book is very good at what it does. The problem here? I can't tell you what it does. At all. Which means I can't really tell you what kind of film you're walking in to. Neither can the trailers, or most (good) reviews. In fact, reviews should generally be avoided just in case. Does this mean you could walk into a movie you really don't like? Yes. That's the cost of doing business with this one. It also means that expectations are very hard to set here. So let me just say this: On a scale which starts with the deadly serious Zodiac and continues with the careful but ever-so-slightly crazy The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, this film is a notch or two further along. I can guarantee you a quality crafted experience. I cannot guarantee you that the source material won't lose your goodwill at some point if you're expecting something this isn't. This is not a thriller in the conventional sense. It's a hard hearted, cynical, borderline-misanthropic movie. It also has its fair touch of satire and is in some ways a deep, deep black comedy, though take that last claim too seriously and you'll likely look at me like I'm crazy once you've seen it. Point is there's a lot going on here that you don't want to know about beforehand, but would do well to loosen your genre expectations a little.
Having said all that, is it actually any good? Hell yes. It'd be worth it if only for the after-movie conversation, which was animated and profuse as people were leaving the theatre. My own initial reaction is one I have not had in a quite a while, verbalised thusly:
"What in the ACTUAL FUCK did I just watch??"
I can think of no higher praise.