Fincher is one of the last great directors of adult films. Not those kind of ‘adult films’, I’m talking quality adult films like The Godfather, adult dramas that were produced by studios with a decent budget to match. Big budget features today can only offer guns, explosions, car chases and big f*ck-off robots beating the sh*t out of each other. If you want to make a film for intelligent adults without any of the above then you’re relegated to ‘indie-adult-drama.’
Based on the 2012 bestseller, the film stars Ben Affleck as a bar owner whose wife goes missing, and as the film progresses he is put under severe scrutiny by the public, the police and the media over his involvement in the case. Telling you any more would be spoiling things - but trust me, this is a film that gets bat-sh*t nuts and that regardless of whether you are a guy or a girl, you do not stick your proverbial d*ck in crazy.
Using non-linear narrative at the start this has been done to cleverly reveal things to us as the audience. As the film moves along you begin questioning which characters to side with and sometimes whose story is more believable. This is a dark and brooding affair and when watching it on Blu-Ray that dark imagery is sharp and beautiful thanks to Fincher’s meticulous attention to detail with regards to set dressing, lighting and camera work.
Like any David Fincher film, it is dark, sometimes so dark it borders on pitch-black, but it is also funny, darkly darkly funny. A lot of this humour comes directly from Batfleck and Rosamund Pike, with Pike giving one of the sexiest, scariest and most disturbing performances thanks to her physical transformations throughout the runtime. By the time you’re finished you’ll never be able to have a shower with your partner again. There’s also some great performances from the supporting cast which include a creepy Doogie Howser, a charming Tyler Perry not playing Madea and the stellar performance from Kim Dickens as a tough as nails detective that gets right up Batfleck’s prostate.
But how about Gone Girl’s special features?
There are none. Unless you count the Director’s Commentary track by Fincher. Now I personally love commentary tracks and David Fincher is always fantastic to listen to. He’s a master of his art and he always gives insights both into the film and the industry as a whole. He is truly fascinating to listen to.
But what about the rest of the features? As I said, there are none and this is just shocking. This is Fincher’s most successful film to date and he has always provided exhaustive special features detailing the making of each of his films. Some of his best include Fight Club, Zodiac and Panic Room, yet this film is bereft of any of this normally great material. And at this stage I’m blaming 20th Century Fox. They have a horrendous record for releasing multiple versions of the same film. It began with the obvious success they had with Star Wars and they have continued this approach ever since. They’ve done it so often to the X-Men movies that Bryan Singer once said in an intro to one of the DVD special features for an X-Men film that he hopes that only one person has bought this DVD and has screened it with all their friends.
Overall you cannot fault the film however the lack of special features from a director famous for providing some of the best behind the scene material feels like a bit of a rip-off. If you don’t care for special features then pick up the film straight away, if you want something with more insight into the films creative process then hold off for the eventual special addition so that those motherf*ckers at Fox don’t get you to pay for the same film twice.
Gone Girl gets Four and a half out of Five creepy Doogie Howsers
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