Gone Girl
Ben Affleck postponed directing Live by Night (2016) in order to work on this film with David Fincher, even stating, "He's the only director I've met who can do everybody else's job better than they could." On-set one day, Affleck changed the lens setting on a camera an almost indiscernible amount, betting a crew member that Fincher wouldn't notice. Affleck lost the bet as Fincher brought up, "Why does the camera look a little dim?",In a flashback to 2010, Nick Dunne is shown playing Battlefield 3 (2011), which was released a year later.,[last lines]
Nick Dunne: What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other? What will we do?,Instead of the traditional 20th Century Fox music that accompanies the logo in the beginning usually, a track from the soundtrack, "What Have We Done to Each Other?" (the first track) plays while the logo is shown, and continues through the Regency logo and the movie's opening credits.,Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Chris Pratt/Rosamund Pike/John Mellencamp (2014),Saved by Zero
Written by Adam Woods, Alfred Agius, Cy Curnin (as Cyril Curnin), James West-Oram & Peter Greenall
Performed by The Fixx
Courtesy of Geffen Records
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises,Amy and Nick Dunne are young, stylish and charming. The immaculate dream couple? It seems so, at least on the face of it. But infidelity and financial troubles let the glamorous façade crumble. One morning, Amy disappears without a trace, and Nick becomes suspect. Did he kill his wife? The media depict him as an uncaring husband, and he's trying desperately to correct that image. But what if he really is the murderer everyone believes him to be?

"Gone Girl", based on the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name, is a masterful thriller, a sharp-sighted media satire and a cynical analysis of modern marriage. Flynn herself wrote the screenplay for the movie adaptation, and David Fincher turns the already disturbing story into something even darker. "Gone Girl" is a perfect fit for Fincher, as it is concerned with two of his favorite themes: gender issues and modern media. The main topic here is how the media are shaping our own identities. Nick Dunne has to adapt to the expectations of the public in order to survive. As his lawyer Tanner Bolt puts it: "This case is about what people think of you."

Amy and Nick both just play a character. They pretend to be a perfect couple. The movie suggests that pretending and being are not as far apart as we tend to think. When everyone plays along, the shallow masks are going to work. The much-maligned ending underlines this insight perfidiously. It's the point where "Gone Girl" becomes a pitch-black social satire. The last act isn't a thriller anymore, it's a grotesque caricature of modern relationships. I've never seen anything like it, and I can't praise Fincher enough for the risk he took with the last half an hour of this movie.

Ben Affleck is great as the insipid husband Nick. You love to hate him. Rosamund Pike is simply mind-blowing. You'll also see Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry in unusual roles. My personal favorite is Carrie Coon as Nick's caring yet foul-mouthed sister Margo. She's the heart of this movie, because unlike everyone else, she genuinely speaks her mind. Kim Dickens as the clever detective Rhonda Boney is pretty approachable, too.

"Gone Girl" might be Fincher's most splendid masterpiece yet. This movie is so unsettling and cynical, it feels like it was directed by the love child of Alfred Hitchcock and Lars von Trier. If that's not awesome, I don't know what is.,