SPOILERS: This is based on the bestseller of the same name by Gillian Flynn. It is one of those “mysteries” where the audience is shown what is going on pretty soon into the movie, while the characters need to figure out what is going on.
But then there is a secondary twist: the characters don’t really solve the mystery. Lazy, schlubby, man-child Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) is accused of murdering perky blonde wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) when she disappears from their home and signs of an assault/murder cover-up are found. But Amy isn’t dead: she’s a manipulative psycho who wants to punish Nick instead of…you know, just divorcing him like everybody else does when the marriage fizzles out. Amy tries hiding until Nick is convicted on her murder and executed…even though death row appeals can go on for decades.
Amy is robbed of her stash of cash by two nasty yokels and is forced to turn to former acquaintance/stalker Neil Patrick Harris for help. Harris squirrels her away in a vacation home, but Amy is creeped out by his controlling creepiness. So she kills him during sex to fake being raped and escapes the home, returning to Nick in front of a gaggle of news reporters covering her own murder case at their home. Not learning anything from all of this, Amy manipulates Nick into getting back together and hapless Nick goes along with it.
David Fincher directed the movie, everything looks and sounds great as with just about everything he’s worked on. It dips into dark comedy at several points, it just isn’t this dramatic thriller the trailer hints at, and the two main characters are pretty unlikeable. You don’t have to like main characters to enjoy how a movie plays out (there aren’t too many likeable supporting characters, really) but there is just something about how all this plays out that left a bad taste in my mouth.
