Plot: With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.
Direction: Amazingly, this isn’t David Fincher’s best movie. It’s maybe his third-best? Se7en, Zodiac, Gone Girl? I haven’t seen The Social Network - I know, I know.
Screenplay: Gillian Flynn adapted her own book, which is a pretty rare thing in Hollywood. She hasn't written a novel since (would you?), but co-wrote Steve McQueen's 2018 film Widows. I should really see that, shouldn't I?
Performances: Ben Affleck is doing his thing and he's so hard to put your finger on up until the intermission. I love some of the supporting performances (Carrie Coon, Tyler Perry, Neil Patrick Harris, Kim Dickens), but this is, of course, The Rosamund Pike Show. Even though she's really a supporting performance for most of the movie, she just runs away with the whole thing. She was so good, actually, that we made her play this part in like ten other movies.
Best moment: Major spoilers. Major major major, if you still somehow don’t know and/or haven’t seen this movie yet. The best moment is the twist. It’s one of my favorite movie theatre experiences because everyone went “Ohhhhhhh” at the same exact time.
Fun fact: On the DVD commentary, Fincher makes a joke that Affleck refused to wear a Yankees cap in the airport scene and shut production down for four days before he compromised by wearing a Mets cap. This is, if you have an operational brain, clearly a joke. But so many people believe it. Still. I see it on Twitter once a week. It's definitely true that he wouldn't wear the Yankees hat (I wouldn't either), but four days? Come on. Try ten minutes.
Imaginary accolade: Best Use of Serious Tyler Perry
Everything is too long. Is it too long? At 149 minutes, we get everything we need from this story and pretty it's jam-packed. It almost feels like a short mini-series. As his movies got longer and longer, it's no wonder Fincher's next project was in television, the Netflix series Mindhunter. I should really see that, shouldn't I?
Rating: Better than Affleck's other Girl movie, Jersey Girl. But I like that movie too!
Credit: Plot synopsis from Letterboxd via TMDb.
Wait i can't believe Fight Club wasn't in the line-up for David Fincher's best work!