When I wrote “Hello World”, I never anticipated that i would actually be addressing readers in countries as diverse as Germany, New Zealand, and Malaysia. Or maybe the stats page is a bunch of bologna. But thank you to the three readers that have given me the motivation and incentive to write again sooner than I anticipated.
Looking back at the actual content of my introductory post, I realize how American I sound in my interests. Since I am an American, and never intended this blog to have international appeal, that all makes sense. So here’s something I did promise from my introduction.
A brief analysis of Gone Girl (2014). If you only want a review don’t read past the (BIG FLASHING WARNING):
Here’s what I’m thinking in lieu of a numerical rating.
I’ll try to limit my review to a couple of sentences, and mention a couple of other movies I think would relate will to my ‘couple of sentences’ review.
Ben Affleck did a great job in the leading role. He didn’t have to carry the film on his back because Rosamund Pike was right there with him to share the emotional workload, which should happen more in mainstream cinema. The whole movie reminded me a lot of Winter’s Bone (2010) which I mention not only because we get to see Jennifer Lawrence’s first performance, but this movie should be seen by more people in general. No one is doubting that this is a Fincher film, but Se7en (1995) was overall a better film and I am still hung over from all of the Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross usage in The Social Network (2010).
(SPOILERS AHEAD)
Over the weekend, I watched Roger & Me (1989) (how did that one not get nominated for an Oscar?) on Saturday and Gone Girl (2014) on Sunday. Both movie’s intent was to have viewers leave wondering “where was the justice?” after completion. To me, only one of these two films successfully did that.
As cut, Gone Girl ran fifteen to twenty minutes too long. I’m sure audiences would have been just as satisfied with a two-and a quarter hour movie compared to a two-and a half hour movie. If director David Fincher really wanted to leave people at the edge of their seats, he would have ended the movie at the moment when Nick (Ben Affleck) went into his room, locked the door, and sat there contemplating with that symbolic cat.
Instead, Fincher stayed true to the script set forth by screenwriter and author of the adapted book, Gillian Flynn, and the film kept rolling. Nick ultimately accepts his role as the husband that has been put in check when he finds out that Amy (Rosamund Pike) has moved one step ahead of him and impregnated herself with semen Nick froze a year earlier. Initially, he is furious that she would do such a thing, even resorting to the physical violence that Amy had previously only imagined. But in the next scene, we find Nick standing by, resigned to his fate, as Nick’s twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) is crushed at the news of their ongoing domesticity. Nick only asks for her continued support as she asks of him, why doesn’t he do something?
And that’s where I get hung up on these last 20 minutes. Why, after two hours of fighting for his innocence and liberation from his manipulative wife, doesn’t he continue the fight, baby or no?
We have seen that at his worst, Nick is a selfish and lazy man who will blindly fall victim to whatever scheme Amy can develop. But at his best, Nick is just as manipulative and cunning as Amy, and even has the capacity to exploit his knowledge of her to gain leverage in the ongoing psychological warfare between the two.
What it may be, and if this is the case it should have been said, is that in the five weeks that passed between her coming home and her dropping the “baby bomb”, they renewed their attraction for each other. In that time, each person saw in the other what made the first four years of marriage so great. But Amy taking extreme steps to keep Nick around shows not only a lack of trust on Amy’s part, but also a (continued) willingness to do whatever it takes to get what she wants. That should have been a wake-up call to Nick.
Under the assumption that Nick fell in love with Amy again and she never makes a power grab in the ensuing years of marriage, what happens when Nick slips back into his old habits: being unfaithful, not engaging Amy on a psychological level? Will Amy take that lying down? Of course not. Nick, standing in that kitchen, accepting the situation without a fight, redefines his character in a single stroke by not showing the same resolve and loath to being played as before.
Coming back to the initial question, where was the justice? Both Roger & Me and Gone Girl concerned an entity, a city and a man respectively, being presented with an insurmountable obstacle and the question: what are you going to do to get past this obstacle? The answer given by Flint, Michigan was “Struggle”, which invokes sympathy in a viewer. If Gone Girl had ended twenty minutes sooner, the response would have been “I’ll let you know”. Instead Nick’s answer was “She won”.
And to generally, albeit indirectly, answer the question “Where was the justice?” is that justice can only come to those that are willing to fight.
Let’s end with a break from all of that seriousness.
But I digress…
It's not a Diary, it's a Di-Journal! 