That Narrator? Totes Unreliable

'Gone Girl' doesn't feel quite right, even though it's spectacularly well done

Don’t worry about whether you’ll figure out who’s telling the truth or who’s lying; everybody’s lying. Part of the fun of David Fincher and Gillian Flynn’s adaptation of her novel is trying to stay a step ahead of Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike, who finally has a role worthy of her talents).

Will you be surprised? Maybe. So many people have read Flynn’s novel that it makes spoilers seem irrelevant. What’s of greater interest is Fincher’s subtle color scheme, which shades truth and fiction, and Carrie Coon’s wonderfully empathetic portrayal of Margo, Nick’s twin.

Does the story hold up? Again, maybe. You’ll probably figure out the crux of the mystery halfway through, but Nick and Amy are such unreliable narrators that there are many twists and turns. Not all of them makes sense, and the movie could be a whole lot shorter. But finally—finally!—someone has put Affleck’s natural insincerity to perfect use, and Pike is delightfully slippery as Amy, a super-intelligent and beautiful woman who may or may not be a sociopath.

Fincher even gets a handle on the novel’s weird humor, though it seems forced at times. Still, something doesn’t quite sit right at the end, even though the ending makes sense considering everything that came before it.

 

GONE GIRL

Directed by David Fincher

With Affleck, Pike and Coon

Regal Stadium 14

R

145 min.

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