Gone Baby Gone Girl

I love that the Afflex (that's Ben & Casey's celebrity couple name, natch) have both been involved with movies that have "Gone" in the title, because, that means something right? Like I should shush my imaginary family at the dinner table while I build a mashed potato sculpture of Batfleck saying, "THIS MEANS SOMETHING".

(Spoilers After the break)





Now that that's out of the way, Gone Girl. I've just watched it. Going to talk about it, albeit digitally, which still counts as talking? That's a big philosophical question, which ties us back to Gone Girl which is just dripping with philosophical questions. Questions like, "Why does anyone get married?" or "Why does anyone live in Missouri?" or "Why has no one smashed Nancy Grace's enormous pumpkin head in with a shovel yet?" (A joke obviously, it's because she probably has CRAZY good security)(Also I don't promote violence on anyone for any reason but bask in the glow of hyperbolic, violence laden, critical rhetoric because I have the privilege and intellect to do so)(By which I mean it's a giggle to talk to tough and still technically legal)(tl;dr don't murder nancy grace)

I don't know how you review films, but I try to take notes when I'm watching. I have loads of notes for movies that I never actually wound up writing a review for because I didn't sit down immediately after viewing and begin to write and if I don't do that, then the writing never comes. I always daydream of a day when I can watch a movie, then turn it back on again, to make more focused and concise notes while I watch it, to truly write an engaging and informed review but that daydream always ends with me getting paid for my writing (read: time) and so here we are, forced to ramble on with thoughts only formed following one 2 1/2 hour dalliance.

The notes I was taking during the first half of the film were fairly critical, in that I was really, really turned off by the voice over narration and the journal entries. I wrote down "What is this a lifetime movie?" well before one of the characters echoed that same sentiment. I actually almost turned it off after the first fifteen minutes because I didn't understand what I was watching and had no idea what the movie was about beyond the fact that Ben Affleck's wife is missing (I never saw a trailer or read a review). For once I'm glad I stuck it out because the movie's opening is not the movie's middle and is definitely not the movie's end.

There's a lot going in Gone Girl which is a fairly impressive understatement given the length and width of the film (breadth? like internal space? you get me). What is it about? Who is the baddie? What is this film saying about gender? Does it have to say anything about gender? What is this film saying about America? Does it have to say anything about America? What is the role of the artist when dealing with genre and genre tropes? What is the responsibility of anyone to do anything at any time for any reason when creating art or not?

You know, the usual lazy sunday mental wanks.

Amy is both a victim and a monster, we can see how she ends up the person she is (although, who is she really? is a question that can be debated forever) and even empathize with her. That's the hallmark of intelligent, nuanced creators, being able to flesh out characters with levels and dimensions, even if at times those dimensions and levels can seem rather shallow.

We can empathize with Amy, Amy who is not only never good enough for her parents, but has to play second fiddle to the perfect daughter allegory they create in her stead. The world loves "Amazing Amy", her parents love "Amazing Amy", but real Amy falls short. We can see her withdraw within herself from Nick at their new home and new life in Missouri and can understand how horrible that must feel (though honestly, communication people! try to talk about your problems with your spouse before turning to Machiavellian levels of manipulation to ruin them! rule 1!).

Amy has levels, even if the revelations about her exes paint her as a pretty manipulative, damaged person from the beginning. Other characters however exist as story props, Nick's twenty something college student fuck buddy for instance, who exists as seductive home-wrecker and then tabloid fodder but nothing much beyond that. But how much space do we owe characters in genre stories? Is it more important to have everyone be a flesh and blood representation of a fully formed person with dimensions? Aren't there people out there who are rather easy to read? Is Gone Girl a straight up genre story? Questions upon questions upon questions.

Despite my earlier claim to privilege and intellect, I don't really have the kind of bloated sense of self worth that comes from either too much schooling or too much time shouting into the internet (i like to whisper into the internet's ear) to presume to answer questions like that, particularly when I'm not getting paid for my opinions. You want to pay me to think a certain way, I'm your man, or your woman, whatever you want, it's the 21st century and I'm poor, bored and educated (read: trained).

As an audience member Gone Girl dragged me about by the nose like it was designed to. I was suspicious of Nick, then sympathetic, I was nervous for Amy, then angry, then confused, then tooooootally freaked out. I love Kim Dickens (who I know primarily from her role on Deadwood which is why I didn't recognize her at first in 21st century garb) and Patrick Fugit was great to just see what a manly hunky man he's turned into since.

The film may be a genre film but at the same time it stays fairly close to reality, the ending in particular. You could say (rightfully so) "Well wouldn't someone notice all the huge glaring holes in the story and start to figure out what actually happened?" Maybe. But at the same time it could very probably end up "just one of those things", like with Jon Benet or Casey Anthony or OJ Simpson, a true crime that goes unpunished because of the limitations of the law or man or time or any combination thereof. What does feel real is the fact that Amy isn't Hannibal Lechter. She hasn't created the perfect crime and it's incredibly human vanities that trip her up and threaten to expose her. It's human weakness all over the place that roots the story in reality and makes it all the more creepy and all the more terrifying.

Technically the films is an outstanding achievement as is everything Fincher directs, if you hate his style (or decry that he doesn't even really have one) you'll find all that you need to reinforce your beliefs, but if you're a sucker for his lighting and cinematography (as I am) you'll be delighted. And the Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is perfect, toying with your emotions and messing with your head in perfect synchronicity with Amy's toying and messing.

I liked the film, it creates a nice counter balance among its characters, never going too far in anyone direction. It's a film with very few characters to like but with many that you'll recognize and a few who you'll sympathize with. There's no fat on it, every scene needs to be there which is really saying something when a film clocks in at 150 minutes or so.

It's a challenging, complicated work with enough angles and sides to create a puzzlebox big enough to hold the gender, sex, love and class anxieties of America.