Gone Girl Book/Movie Review

Rating: 4.5

UPDATED
Originally published 1/15/14

(continued from yesterday)

Hi everyone!  I absolutely loved this book!  If you haven't had a chance to read it, please do.  It was very well written.  When it comes to mysteries, I hate when I can figure out "who done it" and with what and why before I'm halfway into the story.  With GG, I did not see the twists coming.



I will admit, I thought it was a slow start and I was thinking, "Oh no, I hope I can make it through to the end."  About a 1/4 of the way in, I was hooked and if I didn't have kids to feed, laundry to fold, and toys to put away, I would have finished this story within two days.

I had mixed emotions about the ending.  I was surprised that it went the direction it did, but then I realized these two people were two peas in a pod and would always try to one up the other.  They would never be satisfied with the other one "winning".

The film is scheduled to be released October 2014.  Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are playing Nick and Amy Dunne.  I like Affleck, and I have high hopes for him in this role.  Unfortunately the only times I have been blown away by his performances were in films he directed.  As I was reading, I didn't have any particular actors in mind and think he is a good choice.  As for Pike...uh...well...let's just say, I watched Jack Reacher (I was bored and there was nothing else on) and I was less than impressed with her.  Maybe I need to see her in other work.  I just didn't find her a great actress. I don't know what the difference was in the script for Rosamund Pike but she NAILED it as Amazing Psycho Amy!  Especially when we get to see her perspective of things.  By the end you can tell she is really just a great nut job.  Ben Affleck did a great job as well.  Actually I thought Carrie Coon as his sister, Margo, stood out a bit more than Affleck.  It's not that Nick isn't a well developed character, but somehow Coon really brought Go more to the lime light.  She stood out and I really enjoyed her performance.  Tyler Perry was smooth as but-tuh as lawyer Tanner Bolt.  He's the defense lawyer everyone would want to have on their side!

Will this Amy be psycho enough???
Edit: Yes, yes she was!!!  Thank you Rosamund Pike!

I love Neil Patrick Harris and to see him cast in the stalking role of Desi has me very excited to see what he brings to the character.  I think he might really impress me.  I hope so. Was pleasantly surprised.  Still had too much of a physical similarity to his HIMYM character, Barney, but the personality was a lot more loving.  I just wish they would have made him look different so I thought of him more as Dezi.  Not his alter ego or actual self.   However, his final scene was splendidly gruesome and fantastic. The rest of the cast, I am not too familiar with.  Check out the rest of the cast here.

*spoilers*

As for the book, I liked how Nick's time frame was current and Amy's was flashbacks in her journal.  Considering she is missing, it gave us an idea of where she was coming from and what could possibly have gone wrong.   Then all of a sudden, BAM!  Amy is NOT who we thought she was.  Maybe others could have seen the story going in this direction, but I did not.  This twist cranked it up for me and I wanted to see just how far she was willing to go and what was going to be her outcome as well as Nick's.  For as much as I loved the psychotic, twisty turns in this screwd up relationship, I did feel a little let down by the ending.  It's not that it wasn't a good ending or a quick "let's wrap it up" finish, but I wanted to see Amy suffer her consequences.  I do give Flynn a thumbs up for the following:

  Nick has spent all his free time these past months slathering my belly with cocoa butter and running out for pickles and rubbing my feet, and all the things good fathers-to-be are supposed to do.  Doting on me.  he is learning to love me unconditionally, under all my conditions.  I think we are finally on our way to happiness.  I have finally figured it out.  
  We are on the eve of becoming the world's best, brightest nuclear family.
  We just need to sustain it.  Nick doesn't have it down perfect.  This morning he was stroking my hair and asking what else he could do for me, and I said: "My gosh, Nick, why are you so wonderful to me?"
  He was supposed to say: You deserve it.  I love you.
  But he said, "Because I feel sorry for you."
  "Why?"
  "Because every morning you have to wake up and be you."

I really, truly wish he hadn't said that.  I keep thinking about it.  I can't stop. (p. 414-415)

Wow, that would be horrible to hear from your spouse.  So I guess that's worse than any prison time.  She's stuck with herself.  And even she knows that's not good.

At the end of the film, you know Nick  wants to leave but he is staying for the baby's sake and does whatever Amy needs despite his hatred.  I wish the final clip before credits would have been Nick running his fingers through Amy's hair and saying, "I feel sorry for you because every morning you have to wake up and be you."  Then focus on Amy's facial reaction.  Black out.  I think that would have been a stronger punch.

Despite a few changes, which didn't alter or completely change the story, the film stayed very true to the book as far as tone, flashbacks, and details.  I checked out who the screenplay writer was and it was the author herself.  Explains why her film was truthful.  I think most authors should be the only ones to write the screenplay.  Most of the time, it works out far better than someone else.  Great film and highly recommend it.  I would suggest reading the book first.  Because of it's thriller nature, it is far more gripping to read and then see just how they are going to portray that onto the screen.  I don't think it would be as a great a read seeing the film first.  But I have been known to be very wrong, so do whatever you want.  haha!  Both are excellent.