Based on the novel “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn

It is based on the novel Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. It is in two parts, the first and second volumes, and was a #1 New York Times bestseller. The author, Gillian Flynn, debuted as a novelist in 2006 with KIZU. She also wrote the screenplay for the movie Gone Girl.

A thriller as only director David Fincher can make it.

This film is directed by David Fincher, who is also known for Seven, Zodiac, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. One of the most striking features of his films is his skillful direction, which slowly creates a disturbing atmosphere in the ordinary depiction of everyday life.

His skills are also on full display in Gone Girl. At the beginning of the film, Amy, the wife, tells her self-image as a “perfect wife” through her diary, which is eventually revealed to be a trick to deceive the audience. This structure shows how the “ideal partner image” is established through contrived staging and acting and sharply cuts into the external and internal aspects of human relationships.

On the other hand, the husband Nick also acts as a tragic husband who lost his wife, but in reality, he is having an affair with a young student, and his appearance is merely a false persona masked as a devoted husband.

As the story progresses, the cold relationship between the two men becomes clearer and more transparent, and the psychological warfare deceives each other. Fincher’s chilling visual beauty and precise storytelling drew me into the world of the film before I knew it. The thriller that Fincher is known for stands out in this film, but it is not an exaggerated performance; instead, it carefully conveys the anxiety lurking in the quietness and the true feelings and madness behind the facial expressions.

Twice the fun in one work

The first half of “Gone Girl” and the second half of “Gone Girl” are two stories of different genres. The first half is a mystery that unravels the mystery of his wife Amy’s disappearance, while the second half can be enjoyed as a thriller in which the protagonist is threatened by people close to him.

The mystery part of the story’s first half is depicted from two perspectives: the perspective of Nick, the husband who cooperates with Amy’s investigation, and the perspective of the diary left by Amy. However, there is a discrepancy between Nick’s statements to investigators and the contents of Amy’s diary. This discrepancy makes Amy’s disappearance all the more puzzling.

In the story’s second half, the mystery of Amy’s disappearance is solved, and the contradiction between “Nick’s statement” and “Amy’s diary” is also resolved. After watching the film’s second half, you can enjoy “Gone Girl” again by rewatching it from the beginning to make new discoveries.

Acting by the two stars.

The husband, Nick, is played by American actor Ben Affleck, and his wife, Amy, is played by British actress Rosamund Pike.

Acting is an important keyword in Gone Girl. In the first half of the story, Nick plays the role of a “thoughtful gentleman”; in the second half, he plays the role of a “foolish husband.”

Nick tries to play the “thoughtful gentleman” by being a nice guy that everyone likes. He tries so hard to be a nice guy that he smiles for a photo shoot even though his wife is missing.

Nick’s smiling face and the various circumstantial evidence lead to suspicions. At one point, Nick is in desperate straits due to the suspicion. In the story’s second half, he pulls through by playing the “foolish husband” to perfection.

On the other hand, Amy plays the “good woman Nick wants” in the story’s first half and the “ideal wife” in the second half.

The two leads play the “acting husband” and the “acting wife,” respectively. These two “acting” performances give the story more depth.

A story more adapted than the truth by the media

What should not be overlooked in this film is the crucial role played by TV reporters, news programs, and other media figures in moving interpersonal issues into an adapted narrative. In particular, the process of Nick’s public exposure as a suspect in the disappearance accurately illustrates that it is not about the truth but how it appears to the viewer.

As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Amy’s disappearance was her ruse. Still, the media sensationalizes Nick’s infidelity and ambiguous attitude. He is quickly made into a “national villain. Even the smallest gesture, such as smiling at a press conference, is interpreted as evidence of psychopathic behavior, and the public forms a clear-cut composition of “bad husband” versus “beautiful victim.”

The media consumes Nick and Amy’s marriage story as an emotionally charged narrative, ignoring the actual evidence and background that get to the heart of the case. This is a modern-day wake-up call about how the media, which should be reporting the truth, can turn into an entertaining drama.

What was just a private issue of Nick’s infidelity is transformed into a social problem the moment it is exposed to the media, and the couple’s lives themselves are disrupted. This composition depicts the pathology of modern society, where individual mistakes are denounced by the press and spread and consumed like a public execution, so to speak.

As the story approaches the end, Nick and Amy become aware of each other’s “self in front of the camera” in their lives. The scene in which Amy returns as a tragic heroine and receives public praise is a symbolic moment in which the boundary between reality and fiction is completely blurred.

There, it no longer matters whether it is “true” or not. What matters is “how it is presented,” the truth is defeated and put on the back burner by the production. This film is a calm but powerful critique of how the media and the public transform facts into stories and how people are made to dance around them.