Gone Girl by David Fincher is a movie that can challenge your perspective quite a few times throughout the movie. The so called suspense of the movie is revealed halfway through the movie. The movie is a sick joke, a fable and a lament. If you make blanket assumptions about what men and women are capable of, and the circumstances under with they're capable of it, this film will confirm them. After which it seems as if Fincher makes us sit on the director’s chair and challenges our views about feminism and misogyny by portraying it through the public and media in the movie. The rest of the movie you are filled with cringe, hate and sorrow for things that can be changed easily but is not changed due to a metaphorically invisible hand.
The film raises these questions and others, and it answers nearly all of them, often in boldface, all-caps sentences that end with exclamation points. It is not a subtle film, nor is it trying to be. I'm not saying the film is genuinely clever throughout (though it is always fiendishly manipulative) or that every twist is defensible (a few are stupid).
Spoilers ahead:
The film revolves around and about a sociopath, psychopath killer who is portrayed as a perfect criminal since she has a Harvard degree(not in serial killing). I am not saying that it is not a psychological thriller. But David Fincher wants us to first assume that she is the perfect criminal and cannot leave any loopholes whatsoever. It also portrays the mass and media opinion and sentiments shaping the verdict even before the verdict. It shows how our association of one characteristic with another is flawed. Like a sweet, blonde girl can never be psychopath, a pregnant recently victimised woman can have no flaws, and if the man she is married to leaves her then he must be a terrible man. The film often shoves its perspective down our throat.
I would certainly recommend it for a one time watch but can never explain why it has a 8.1 IMDB rating. - Sanjeet Sahoo
