Gone Girl

No, I haven't read the book, yet.

It's taken me this long to see Gone Girl because, honestly, I had heard not great stuff about it. Though the trailers were intriguing, I was under the impression that it would be one of those twist ending movie where the hype has you figuring out the twist very early on (this happened to me with Sixth Sense, there were so many commercials for it and people claiming the ending was so surprising, it took about 15 minutes to figure it out).

So I started watching assuming what the solution was.  And lo and behold, I was right. Though the movie doesn't end there. The movie started out a bit slow. I will admit I am a fan of the flashback/present day format of telling the story. So that helped me warm to it.  And I did get caught up in the intrigue. As usual, I don't want to say too much about the story of reveal anything.

Though the movie presents itself as a mystery, thriller type I ultimately saw that as the background story. To me this movie was a statement on the media.  How they make and break individuals and how they manipulate the emotions and views of their audience.

The thriller "sub story" was at times reminiscent of Hitchcock and there was even a very nice, yet not so subtle, tip of the hat to Vertigo.

And then the movie needed to end. In the last 20 minutes (or so, I wasn't watching the clock) the film fell apart. Up to this point, the attention to plot and character kept things flowing logically. Not always expectedly, but logically. But this last piece dismissed the logic. It isn't that I didn't get the ending or didn't like the ending.  I didn't appreciate how dismissive it was of the rest of the film. It just didn't fit. Perhaps this was, once again, media manipulating the audience but honestly, it wasn't as intelligent has the majority of the movie.

Will I see it again?  Not really sure. Will I read the book?  Very possibly. But that begs a bigger question. One I have considered with previous films such as Hunger Games and 50 Shades. If I need to read the book to appreciate or enjoy the movie, aren't the movie writers and directors failing to do their jobs?