Gone Girl (2014)

When a husband (Ben Affleck) comes home on the day of his fifth anniversary, he finds his wife (Rosamund Pike) missing and there are signs of foul play. He contacts the police who begin an investigation but there's more, a lot more going on than meets the eye. As a film maker, David Fincher has always been a bit erratic ranging from lousy (THE GAME) to juvenile (THE FIGHT CLUB) to good (THE SOCIAL NETWORK) and excellent (ZODIAC). This is his best film. Razor sharp and incisive, a dark and complex look into a nightmare marriage gussied up in the guise of a thriller. It's a nasty piece of goods but it's dealing with some unhealthy people to put it mildly. Affleck is spot on perfect as the somewhat befuddled and not always honest husband but it's Rosamund Pike's performance that took me by surprise. I've seen this lovely young actress before (PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, DIE ANOTHER DAY) but nothing prepared me for her knock you to the ground performance. Based on the novel by Gillian Flynn who also did the screenplay, there are a couple of "twists" that I suppose are meant to take you by surprise but (and I haven't read the book) they were so obvious to me that I was always one step ahead of the film. That being said, it's a terrific film and one that I expect will be high on my ten best film list at the year's end. With Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry, Kim Dickens, Patrick Fugit, Carrie Coon, David Clennon, Missi Pyle and Sela Ward.