L'amore bugiardo - Gone Girl

Two movies for the price of one.

That's a fairly glib start to a review of a movie that I really liked, but it is true. The first half of Gone Girl is a fairly standard "did he or didn't he" mystery thriller. Then, about an hour in, the perspective shifts entirely and suddenly you realise that you're watching – perhaps – the most pitch-black comedy that you've ever seen.

Despite the abrupt shift, I still think that Gone Girl holds together extremely well as one whole movie. Ben Affleck's Nick manages to inspire sympathy without ever being truly likable while Rosamund Pike's Amy (the star of the show in my opinion) is brilliant, terrifying, hilarious and despicable in various combinations and occasionally all at the same time.

David Fincher's direction is both classy and clever (as usual) and several scenes are particularly outstanding due at least as much to his brilliance as that of the actors involved in them. My one complaint would be over the length – it really didn't need to be two and a quarter hours long. There were certainly a few moments, particularly in the first half, when I wished that the movie would hurry up and get to the point just a little more quickly.

Gone Girl is a movie unlike any that I've ever seen before and as such largely defies further description. I would recommend this movie to all (with a warning that the adult rating is well earned) but especially those with a dark sense of humour. The darker the better.

This is a 2.5 hour movie and sometimes these days it's difficult for me to stick with the longer movies but this never felt long. You were always curious what was going on. Let's just say it didn't quite go the way I expected but I was intrigued the whole time. The acting was great. This could for sure be considered a slow burn and I'm actually currently watching the TV show Sharp Objects by the same author and this is paced much better than that. There's a couple things I didn't particularly thing got solved or like how they went at the end but overall a great movie.

Dark and twisted, David Fincher's stylish new mystery thriller was derived from Gillian Flynn's intriguingly slick tale from her complex and suspenseful novel. By far one of the best acting performances to have come from Ben Affleck, 'Gone Girl' boasts some strong yet disturbing portrayals from Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry and Affleck. Fincher has garnered fame and recognition as a mainstream director, that is not only able to engulf the audience within the picture, but actually make them part of the scenario. Fincher exercises upon his trademarks with the swift and stunning cinematography, the chilling score and tight editing, all of which makes 'Gone Girl' a movie full of great visual storytelling.

I'm not one for reviews, but I tremendously enjoyed this film but felt empty at the end of it. That ending was shockingly bad, such a let down to a great film. Still worth watching but you will end up cursing the writers, producers and perhaps even the actors for that low quality ending. Even if the story was written to end this way, it could have been communicated far better and with far more realistic excitement. It seems like they just plonked it at the end rather than continue the story. What the hell happened? Did they run out of time or needed to release it by a specific date or did the original scriptwriter run off? The end the film was not of the same quality of the rest of the film and left me feeling shortchanged.

Wow, actually a thriller that's pretty good. Yes, it's fair to say that 'Gone Girl' is a really engrossing film. As with almost every film, it's based on a book. And, as with most films based on a book, I haven't read the book, so I haven't got a clue how well the film relates to the source material. But then I don't care. I just enjoyed the ride.

'Gone Girl' is one of those films where you don't want to say too much about for fear of giving things away and spoiling it for people who haven't seen it. Ben Affleck plays a (reasonably) decent husband whose well-to-do wife disappears. The media circus that follows then starts to reveal that the truth is far more complicated that it first seems (not to mention the obligatory police investigation). It's fair to say that what follows is a film that twists and turns, so you only really get one chance to watch it and not know what's coming.

Many people don't really like Affleck when it comes to acting (even less now he's due to don the Batsuit!), but I think most people will relate to him as he gets pursued and hounded (unfairly? You'll have to wait and see!) by the media. Rosamund Pike plays his (gone!) wife with a flawless American accent. Again, you'll have to see whether she's found alive or dead. The story bounces around back and forth in time, making sure you're just confused enough never to put too much together before the film's ready to reveal what's happening.

If I had one complaint it's that the film is a little too long. Perhaps ten to fifteen minutes could have been edited out at around the three quarters mark, just to speed it up. But that's a minor gripe. Basically, if you like your thrillers twisty and turny (and have a couple of hours to spare on a film that you really have to concentrate on) give this one a go.