Gone Girl will blow your mind: Thriller takes sinister look at marriage

MANILA, Philippines - How well do you know your spouse or partner? Do you really know the person you sleep with every night?  

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the premise of this year’s hottest movie at the prestigious New York Film Festival (NYFF) in Manhattan called Gone Girl, a tour de force thriller that will blow your mind from start to finish. 

The STAR was among the international media invited to the world premiere of this David Fincher opus that opened the 52nd NYFF last Sept. 26 (the festival runs until Oct. 12). It is based on the bestselling novel of Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay.  

Fincher, who directed the highly-acclaimed The Social Network, Se7en and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, along with his stellar cast — led by Ben Affleck and the newest Hollywood goddess, the British actress Rosamund Pike (remember her name) — basked in the exuberant applause of audiences at the end of the screening as they took the stage to face an enthusiastic press at the AMC Loews Lincoln Square Theater.  

Clearly, Fincher and his stars know they have created something precious that will be hard to ignore come Oscar race.   

Gone Girl — released across the US last Oct. 3 and opening in the Philippines today — is already hailed for having the sexy creepiness and cinematic appeal of the mystery thrillers Basic Instinct and Fatal Attraction.  

The Twentieth Century Fox and New Regency presentation (with Reese Witherspoon as one of the producers) centers around a beautiful New York couple, Nick and Amy Dunne, both writers who lost their jobs amid the economic downturn. They were forced to move to Nick’s Missouri hometown in the midwest section of America — a far cry from their cosmopolitan life in the Big Apple.  

With their finances drying up and their future turning bleak, their marriage starts unraveling with both characters beginning to behave badly. And on their fifth wedding anniversary, Amy (in an unforgettable performance by Pike) mysteriously vanishes. And that’s when all hell breaks loose with poor Nick (played with great subtlety by Affleck) left in the middle of a terrible mess as the prime suspect.   

Did Nick really kill his wife? How could he do such a horrible thing? Where is the wife’s body? The fun only gets better with hilarious media frenzy and the involvement of an “idiot” neighbor.

About 15 minutes into the film, you may find youself in a hazy maze of a whodunit thriller. Until the twist comes along that will send your head spinning.

More than a psychological thriller, Gone Girl is actually a mind-boggling take on marriage and relationships.

“We really dissect, we put a marriage under a microscope...” said Pike, who is currently pregnant with her second child. “It’s a film about intimacy and the wonderful things that can go with intimacy, and the treachery that can come with intimacy when you know someone so well.” 

Affleck, himself one of Hollywood’s most influential filmmakers (Argo, The Town), said he’s only thrilled to be working with Fincher, with whom he has learned a lot during the entire shoot.

“I’m at this point in my career where I’ve decided it’s all about the director,” Affleck pointed out. “I would have done the phone book with David. It was a true learning experience, I loved it and I would do it again and again and again.”

“And David, despite his reputation, is a very funny guy and nice guy, not just a demon,” Affleck added, drawing guffaws from the press. The actor was referring to his director’s notoriety of being a perfectionist, demanding several takes from his stars until his desired scene is achieved.

Fincher, for his part, expressed his pride in being able to assemble a top-caliber cast that also includes Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens, Sela Ward, Emily Ratajkowksi, Missi Pyle, Patrick Fugit, Lisa Banes, David Clennon and Casey Wilson. Each of them displays some creepiness or instability in the film prompting a journalist to comment that the only really stable character in the movie is the pet cat of Nick and Amy, which was featured prominently in several scenes. 

Gone Girl will remind you of the real-life crime dramas you see in the news about a missing person, where a husband or wife, or an ex-lover, is a suspect. It would make you cringe and even laugh at times, while you keep on guessing right up until the final shot.