SPORTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Monday, October 27, 2014 11
A Trio of Film Reviews, Currently in Theatres
A Wife, A Mother, and a Music Instructor
kendall grant › staff writer
Gone Girl (2014) 3/4
M
yst i f y i ng, w e l l-pl a n n e d, pr ecisely curdled, and tantalizingly mercurial, Gone Girl is a stealthy comedy
and an absorbing melodrama; a breakall-the-windows plot-twister that retains every jolt
from Gillian Flynn’s blockbuster novel, and a work
of chilly wit and bleak metaphor that toys with the
viewer like a femme fatale with her prey. The perfect
date-night movie for couples who dream of destroying one another.
On the day of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick
Dunne returns home to find that his wife, Amy, is
missing. Her disappearance creates a media frenzy,
and his awkward behaviour and lies surrounding
the marriage implicate him for her apparent murder.
As evidence mounts against him, Nick becomes the
prime suspect, and Amy’s diary entries reveal the
disintegration of a once-happy relationship.
With her serenely cool beauty, Rosamund Pike is
a revelation, and deserves to graduate to the A-list
with her multi-faceted turn as the privileged, manipulative, calculating Amy, a quintessentially icy
Hitchcockian blonde who serves as the unattainable centre of a constantly shifting narrative. Underutilized after years of standout supporting work, the
actress demonstrates versatility with compelling eyes
that can instantly switch from innocent to detached.
It’s a joy to see her finally seize upon a starring role
with total gusto. A Sharon Stone-like breakthrough;
Oscar consideration is almost guaranteed.
David Fincher, that dark lord of cinema, wakens an
unease that trembles throughout this domestic horror
film, and its sinister, brackish atmosphere – dominated by Jeff Cronenweth’s mustard-yellow fluorescent cinematography and Trent Reznor and Atticus
Ross’ frigid electronic lilts (like floating on a cotton
candy cloud over a shark tank) – is designed to make
you squint, recoil, and look closer. Fincher and Flynn
attempt to explore the primal marital questions, the
way people assume established, familiar archetypes
to please, manipulate, and entrap one another. Really,
though, Gone Girl