GONE GIRL - Tuesday 7th October 2014.

'GONE GIRL' which I saw at my local multiplex earlier this week must rank as one of the most hotly anticipated films of the year underscored by a great story adapted for the big screen by the author of the book of the same name (Gillian Flynn), Directed by an accomplished and astute film-maker (David Fincher) and starring in its lead roles Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike who turn in equally strong performances. Fincher has been around the traps now for long enough and has a strong pedigree - he knows how to put a good story on screen; set up his shots with clean, crisp, seamless clarity; and extract nuanced performances from his Actors.

This is a film about 21st century marriage, the fragility of relationships, what we think we know about our partner, and the lengths that some will go to in order to move on. And so to the story. The film opens with Nick Dunne (Affleck) sauntering into 'The Bar' at about 10:30am and ordering a Bourbon from the bar tender whom we soon learn is his sister, Margo Dunne (Carrie Coon [and co-owner of this watering hole with him]). In these first few minutes we learn how close this brother/sister relationship is, how they stand by each other no matter what, and how he can confide in her with his real feelings about his wife Amy (Pike). It is the morning too of their fifth wedding anniversary, and Nick is plucking up the courage to return home and ask Amy for a divorce. The conversation over the bar is interrupted by a phone call from a goodly neighbour, and Nick returns home to retrieve the escaped family cat.

On entering the house Nick observes signs of a seemingly violent struggle - there is an upturned smashed coffee table, furniture is overturned and there is a blood splatter mark above the kitchen range hood. He calls out for Amy but there is no response, the house is empty, he calls the Police. Fairly soon afterwards the Police arrive in the form of Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) and Officer Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit). They survey the scene, take notes, make their own observations and so the hunt is on. But - without a body is this a kidnapping, is it a murder, what is it?

The first half of the film is largely told from Nick's perspective - how he met Amy and fell in love almost instantly and then over time, the deterioration of their relationship. In between time Nick looses his job, and then Amy hers as a famous children's book series author and they are forced to relocate from New York to Nick's childhood home of North Carthage, Missouri to attend to his sick mother who is dying of breast cancer - and within two years she is dead!

As the Police start probing further and further into the disappearance of Amy and her suspected murder, so the media go into overdrive given her renown and how seemingly up to now she has led a charmed life. Nick is distant as the investigation seems to close in on him - he is calm, relaxed, smiles for the cameras and is grateful for everyone's volunteer help as the town joins the search for missing Amy. But is all this a front as he tries to remain balanced in his adversity - did he really do it, is he trying to cover something up, or is this just his way of dealing with the emotional trauma confronting him? He is admonished on television, on talk back shows, in the news, in the press and in social media for not demonstrating the behaviours that someone in his position should be! As the film progresses we learn more of Nick, and it's not all sunshine and rainbows either!

Moving forward we learn more of Amy too but this is delivered in flash back through her writings in her diary, and this reveals in time the cracks in their relationship, the breakdown in their interaction with each other and her innermost fears for her personal safety at his hands. But, is all this as it it would seem? As the Police close in so more questions are revealed than are answered, until the diary is found and the 'evidence' confronting husband Nick is almost overwhelming . . . or is it?

The plot here twists and turns as Amy's ex-lovers enter the fray with their own tales of broken relationships and the aftermath of it - including Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris) who throws a life-line only to have it snatched from under him later on. There are various others on the sidelines too that come and go and play small but not insignificant parts in the proceedings as we approach the final chapter. Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry) is a famous expert defence lawyer who is recruited on a US$100K retainer  to defend Nick when the inevitability of the situation, and the Missouri death penalty for murder, all finally dawns on him. This too is handled well without any courtroom operatics, over dramatisation - just keeping it grounded and real.

All of this is delivered with a deft touch, everything is not necessarily as it seems, and tables are turned back & forth before the final verdict is reached. The film will keep you guessing as lives come apart and are patched-up, the carefully interwoven plot steadily reveals itself, and the hold that Nick and Amy have over each other comes full circle. Ben Affleck puts in another great turn as the seemingly wronged everyman (he really does improve steadily with age and with every performance as he matures as an Actor and Director) and Rosamund Pike is the star of this show showing us her full range of acting ability in ways that you won't expect, but also keeping her Amy grounded, real and believable. And as for David Fincher - he's done it before, and in 'Gone Girl' he has done it again with a great film in every respect that more than nods at the murder mystery thrillers also delivered so well by one Mr. Alfred Hitchcock!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-