Gone Girl

BTW, I got annoyed at the Washington Post yesterday. In their weekend box office recap, they showed a picture of Rosamund Pike from the movie and offered a pretty big spoiler. (Won't mention it here since clearly some in the thread haven't seen the movie yet.)

Pretty dopey move, IMO - I'm glad I saw the movie before I read the paper!

 

I must say I liked it more than I thought I would.

Never read the book and significant other dragged me to it.

I could see Rosamund Pike getting Oscar nomination out of it.... The sister also did a great job.

 

Saw this last night - superbly crafted as expected with a lot to say about today's mores. Excellent acting all round, especially from Rosamund Pike.

As I was coming out a lady asked her friend 'Was that a true story?' Somehow I think not.

 

I saw it last Friday went to see it with my Mom... Bad idea lot's of explicit sex scenes. I had no idea it was a book or what it was about. I like Ben Afflek. Not sure I actually like the movie though.

 

Saw it tonight and thought it was terrifically entertaining. Didn't care for the ending but apparently that's how the book ends as well. Beautifully directed and really well acted (again, except for some scenes at the end). Affleck and Pike are great.

 

[QUOTE="MAYBEIMAMAZED,Not sure I actually like the movie though.[/QUOTE]

Didn't hit too close to home, I hope?

 

What an impeccably-crafted, incredibly stupid hunk of **** this movie was.

Like a mix of Vertigo and Rebecca, but with all the brains and humanity sucked out.

More below:

Spoiler

It's pretty offensive, when you think about it. At a time when victims of sexual assault are coming forward in unprecedented numbers and encountering powerful resistance from practically every institution of public authority, resistance that takes the form of attempts to discredit their stories and their character, and finding it incredibly difficult to bring the perpetrators to justice -- we have a major popular movie that suggests that, essentially, chicks be crazy, and probably ARE lying when they claim to be raped (or murdered!) just to show poor innocent bros what's what. And not only that, people are going to believe them lying be-otches EVERY TIME, even though real-world rates of conviction are miniscule!

 

What ending would you have preferred?

 

This same thing occurred to both of us as the credits were rolling. But I suppose it could be argued that

Spoiler

by reversing the traditional genders of the abuser/abused and the going-back-to-the-abusive-partner thing at the end, the movie does (in a roundabout way) give a sort of ****-you to people who always blame the victims of domestic abuse for returning to their previous (violent) partners. Which is kind of interesting. More generally, though, I agree -- this was one of my major misgivings about the film.

 

I'm not sure but one in which the Affleck character doesn't behave totally contrary to the rest of the film. There are other things but I don't want to say any more. I'm really glad I saw this in the first week because I'm sure things will be divulged in the weeks to come that will wreck the twists.

 

I enjoyed this movie - I give it *** 1/2 out of **** - but then I'm somebody who thinks a Hitchcock movie with all the humanity sucked out of it would pretty much look like a Hitchcock film (and I dig the director)...

As for brains, well, again, the number of plot holes in this movie compared to one by ol' Al is probably nearly the same.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I dunno. For me at least, the end of Vertigo is almost overwhelmingly emotional.

I think there were shades / suggestions of a pretty bracing sense of loss in Gone Girl, but

Spoiler

it would have stronger had Amy been a more fully developed character instead of (basically) a nutty plot device. Again, I liked the movie quite a bit, but I can see this criticism.

 

As the rare Hitchcock fan who thinks Vertigo nosedives around the halfway mark, I can't really speak to that ending. Sorry.

As for that character's development, I think there was more than people are remembering. My wife tells me there is more in the book, but I thought the amount in the film, especially in the open half hour, was adequate.

This is a tough film to discuss spoiler free!

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

I saw this on Wednesday and thought it was just silly, entertaining but silly! 5 police interviewing her all at once and she doesn't get to clean the blood off herself till she gets bag home (how bloody stupid), where was all the CCTV footage from the days before she arrived at that guys "secret" getaway?

 

See, that's the key difference between this film and Vertigo. In Vertigo,

Spoiler

we know Novak is conning Jimmy Stewart,

but we also get a clear sense of what her motivations are and those motivations command our sympathy. In Gone Girl, Amy's motivation is that

Spoiler

she's a crazy ****ing bitch

. And sorry, but that's stupid and offensive.

 

Well, no, there was more to the character's motivation than that, or else I would agree about the offensive part.

We see background reasons why that character might be so driven and egocentric, and we definitely see motivations for specific actions.

There is the trick where the audience is coaxed into feeling sympathy for a different character who would otherwise not be so sympathetic, but that's classic Hitchcock...

I'm not using the spoiler tag, so that's all I'll say.

Shalom, y'all!

L. Bangs

 

Just finished reading Case Histories, and frankly I found little to nothing in common with Coben of Flynn, both of whom have a knack for laugh-out-loud comedic insight and taught, twist-laden pacing. Atkinson's "mystery" takes a complete backseat to her characterization and backstory, and ultimately the "whodunnit" aspect of the novel is neither unexpected nor satisfying from a mystery-lover's point of view. She's by all means a terrific writer, but as someone who thrives on suspense I grew increasingly impatient with the tangents, interpersonal relationships, and general "histories", as I realized this novel would be offering precious little as far as twists and turns. In essence, a very well-written novel, but a far cry from Flynn's brilliant edginess or Coben's twisty, jigsaw plots and breakneck pacing. Thanks for the rec, though. I'm always looking for new writers.

 

Atkinson is not for everybody, but then, unlike Coben and Flynn, she's not trying to be. Stephen King's review

Case Histories
Stephen King says: "Not just the best novel I read this year (it actually made EW's ''official'' top 10 fiction list in 2004), but the best mystery of the decade. There are actually four mysteries, nesting like Russian dolls, and when they begin to fit together, I defy any reader not to feel a combination of delight and amazement. Case Histories is the literary equivalent of a triple axel. I read it once for pleasure and then again just to see how it was done. This is the kind of book you shove in people's faces, saying ''You gotta read this!'"

gives a spoiler free idea of how good a writer she is, but you're right, it's not casual reading.

 

Saw it today. Loved it

 

I'll try to say this without giving anything way, but I read King's assessment on the book cover and now find it tremendously misguiding. I'm actually sort of at a loss because ultimately there wasn't much complexity in terms of plotting, and if anything it's characterization, minutiae and backstory that are the author's greatest strengths (in my opinion). It was barely a mystery as far I'm concerned and about halfway through I no longer felt any sense of intrigue. I guess Stephen King and I don't see eye to eye when it comes to mysteries. I will say, however, that there is genuine, unsettling, human aspect to the novel that in a way transcends your traditional mystery, but I guess I was expecting something else because of the comparisons to Coben, who's virtually the complete opposite in terms of technique and pay-off.

 

Saw it last night and loved it. Nice observations on today's media and some of the throwaway lines were very funny, too.

Glad I didn't see it with MY mother.

 

I quite enjoyed the movie. Tyler Perry could very well earn an Oscar nod as a supporting actor. Never thought I'd say that. Great acting all around, and the soundtrack really took the film to another level.

Actually, I searched Gone Girl on here to see if anyone had an ID on the Dunne's audiophile turntable!

 

I thought the movie was pretty good, but hated the ending. Entertaining, but I can't say I would watch it again.

 

I wonder if anyone actually liked the ending. Could Flynn be the one and only?

 

Saw it tonight and thought the sister and female cop were decent but I would only give the movie a 5/10 rating at best, probably closer to 4/10.