By MISSY CHAPMAN
Cataloging Supervisor, Warsaw Community Public Library

Have you ever watched a movie and a third of the way in you have a startling realization that the two main characters are so unsympathetic and unappealing you ask, “Why am I even watching this?” I felt this way about the movie “Gone Girl”. About one third of the way in, even though I still had no interest in the main characters, I began to have an interest in the story line. As the movie unfolded on the screen I noticed the film had an eerily familiar feel to the real life disappearance and murder of Lacy Peterson by her husband Scott Peterson.

Without giving away any spoilers, “Gone Girl” is the story of Nick and Amy Dunne, a seemingly happy married couple who live in a Missouri suburb. However, Nick’s life turns into a living hell on the morning of their fifth anniversary when he comes home to find his wife missing, and eventually becomes a suspect in her disappearance.

I truly enjoyed “Gone Girl”. I’ve not seen a thriller this good in ages, with its airtight and atmospheric blend of the hilarious, the macabre, and romantic. It zigzags through a media crazed hall of mirrors in which public perception becomes more important than truth. It is a hugely satisfying piece of entertainment that is reminiscent of a Hitchcock film. It keeps you enthralled to the very end and will continue to trouble and challenge your perceptions long after the film has ended.

The cast is amazing. David Fincher does an excellent job directing. As Nick, Ben Affleck gives what may be the most natural performance of his career. He’s confident without being cocky, charming without being smarmy. It’s as if this character was written with him in mind! As Amy, Rosamund Pike possesses the sort of ferocious charisma that magnetizes the screen. Even the musical soundtrack done by Trent Reznor, from Nine Inch Nails, and Atticus Ross, is worth mentioning. It’s hauntingly tense without being intrusive.

In the end, “Gone Girl” is a film about image and perception. On the broader level, it’s about how the media builds fabrications that quickly get subsumed as truth, and the faithlessness of the public that will swallow whatever narrative is being sold. On a more intimate level, it is about the facades we build and the masks we wear to get through life day to day.