Gone Girl movie - open spoilers

[Skammer]

Rodgers01, many of your complaints about things being not believable or out of left field are better explained in the book. For example, in the book, Amy is held a virtual prisoner at Desi’s for several weeks. She had reached out to him hoping just to get some money but his obsession leads to her being trapped in his lake house with no way to escape his control. So he comes across as much more menacing (with the caveat that Amy is an unreliable narrator). And Nick’s lawyer is much more dubious about Nick’s story at first as well.

It was his discovery of the items in the woodshed that made him realize that Amy was alive, and that all of her clues were subtle "fuck you"s to him, being filled with double meanings and left in places where he had cheated on her with his student.

[Rodgers01]

@Skammer

Rodgers01, many of your complaints about things being not believable or out of left field are better explained in the book. For example, in the book, Amy is held a virtual prisoner at Desi’s for several weeks. She had reached out to him hoping just to get some money but his obsession leads to her being trapped in his lake house with no way to escape his control. So he comes across as much more menacing (with the caveat that Amy is an unreliable narrator).

Interesting. So then Amy did not fabricate that Desi had stalked her when they broke up? I thought that was supposed to have been just as fake as her high school boyfriend raping her and Nick murdering her.

[Inner_Stickler]

Yeah, my impression was that Desi truly was a stalker.

[Hentor_the_Barbarian]

FWIW, I thought that the movie depicted Desi’s control and manipulation just fine. I had no problems believing that Amy would react exceptionally poorly to his behavior. And she wasn’t in any position to just walk out, since Desi could just tell - and show - everyone that she had been there, alive and well.

I wasn’t sure why she went to Desi in the first place, since it would mean ceding control to him anyway.

Did the book say why, once she was robbed, she didn’t just go back to her plan of punching her own ticket?

Also, did anyone else unfamiliar with the book have the experience of having the commercials spoil the movie for you? When they put out the commercial that featured a quote from a reviewer calling Rosamund Pike “depraved,” the most likely guess was that she faked everything.

[Fuzzy_Dunlop]

@Rodgers01

First, I just didn’t believe Amy’s transition to hating Nick to the point that she wanted him to die. The scenes from their early relationship (which we’re supposed to believe are true) show her as an intelligent, kind, funny, loving, sensible person. The movie would have been stronger if there had been some clouds on the horizon, some indication that she had this horrible dark side. But nope - there was nothing.

In the book, after it’s revealed that Amy is alive and fled on her own, we realize that everything we read about Amy until that point was from her fake diary, which she spent a year writing. So you never really see any account of her true initial reaction to Nick. Nick doesn’t have a tremendous amount to say about it and most of Amy’s account is deliberately fabricated.

@Rodgers01

Then there’s the question of why Amy didn’t stay with Desi Collings. Some people mentioned that he’s considered a bad guy in the book, but he’s a kind, intelligent character in the movie, and seems to have everything Amy could want. But Amy is swayed to go back to Nick just by seeing him on TV? Again - not believable.

In the book, again, she’s almost literally his prisoner. He won’t give her access to a vehicle or even the pass code to unlock the gate. When she asks for money in case there’s an emergency and she has to flee without him, he gives her $40.00. It’s also revealed he was creepily obsessed with her long before she contacted him.

[Inner_Stickler]

I assumed she never actually killed herself because once she’s dead, she can’t gloat.

[Yookeroo]

@Cayuga

Two reasons, and you got one of them. When she saw Nick on TV, she got in into her head that he had changed, and now the two of them could be the perfect couple. (Keep in mind that Amy is a total nut job.)

The second reason was emphasized more strongly in the book, but present in the movie as well. Desi was keeping her prisoner. He never let her leave the lake house. I think that in the book, she was there for several weeks before she’d finally had enough.

I don’t think she saw the potential perfect couple. She saw someone she could control instead of being controlled by Desi. I thought the movie made it pretty clear why she wanted away from Desi.

[joyfool]

@Inner_Stickler

Yeah, my impression was that Desi truly was a stalker.

Yes, I figured Desi was exactly as she portrayed him when Affleck’s character went to talk to him about his so-called stalking and he just basically closed the door in his face. And I also, having never read the book, got the distinct impression right off the bat that he was keeping Amy captive. All of that was probably the creepiest part of the movie.

Why did Nick not leave her there at the end? I’m as confused as most why he didn’t drop her ass on the lawn and drive away initially, but once he knew she was pregnant, the rest was obvious. You couldn’t leave your child alone to be terrorized by that woman, could you? She definitely had him over the proverbial barrel then.

One last note on Amy’s switch in behavior… I thought the film did a decent job of showing that Amy couldn’t deal once faced with anything besides perfect idealism. When they both lost their jobs, Nick didn’t handle it the way Amazing Amy was. He needed to still be quirky and attentive and what-the-hell-ever cutesy shit she was always looking for. That was the furtherest thing from his mind, so she immediately dropped any pretense of being the girl he fell in love with and the real Amy emerged. One that teaches lessons and expects you to jump through hoops to prove how special and wonderful and perfect everything is. Then, it just escalated from there. He withdrew, she got worse, he found someone else, and finally, she went ballistic.

Oh, and the reason she didn’t kill herself was just what was said above. You can’t gloat if you’re dead.

[AlsoNamedBort]

My only real criticism was that I wish they waited just a little bit before revealing what happened. When the movie starts, you assume Nick is innocent because you seem him on his own and he doesn’t act guilty. But then it slowly starts to shift to where he just might be guilty: the affair, the attack, Amy going to buy a gun, Amy being pregnant. I wish there was just another scene or two where you firmly start to think that he’s guilty before the big reveal. Put us on the side of all the people who want him arrested.

[actualliberalnotoneofthose]

@Rodgers01

Then there’s the question of why Amy didn’t stay with Desi Collings. Some people mentioned that he’s considered a bad guy in the book, but he’s a kind, intelligent character in the movie, and seems to have everything Amy could want. But Amy is swayed to go back to Nick just by seeing him on TV? Again - not believable.

Maybe this stuff is not believable if you’ve never dealt with mentally ill people, but when I read descriptions of these characters they remind me of people I’ve known in real life who do things that are not rational or predictable. I’ve personally gone through things in relationships (and family members) that I don’t think anyone would believe if they were presented in fiction.

[brickbacon]

@Rodgers01

I saw the movie this weekend having never read the book and knowing nothing about the plot except that it concerned a woman’s disappearance, which you pretty much get from the title.

God, it was a mixed bag. On the good side: some excellent performances. Rosamund Pike is going to get all the glory, but Ben Affleck arguably had a harder role and he performed it brilliantly. I also loved the actress who played his twin sister. David Fincher’s direction was great, and that, combined with the story, basically kept me entertained for the full 2 1/2 hours.

I agree with almost everything in your post although I would say I was less entertained for the last 30 min or so because I didn’t really see how the plot was going to advance in any satisfactory way.

@Rodgers01

First, I just didn’t believe Amy’s transition to hating Nick to the point that she wanted him to die. The scenes from their early relationship (which we’re supposed to believe are true) show her as an intelligent, kind, funny, loving, sensible person. The movie would have been stronger if there had been some clouds on the horizon, some indication that she had this horrible dark side. But nope - there was nothing.

Again, not having read the book I don’t know if it is handled better there, but I thought this was a major missed opportunity. Not so much because of the shortcomings of anyone involved in the movie, but more so because of the limitations of making a major motion picture. I think the story of how the relationship turns sour is probably more interesting, so I kinda wish they had opted to make a mini-series out of this rather that a pared down movie. I think this problem is more even more stark tonally when you compare the first hour to the rest of the film.

@Rodgers01

Speaking of the money, Greta robbing her was another thing that was completely out of left field. Greta is portrayed as a sympathetic, supportive friend…until the plot decides that it would be cool for her to rob and beat Amy, and so, she does.

That and the fact that it’s kinda hard to believe Amy would be able to basically go unrecognized for so long in public. Even a bigger stretch that she would watch news reports about her without people even mentioning how much they look alike.

@Rodgers01

Also, I frankly didn’t believe that Nick would figure out that Amy was faking her own death.

Yeah. So much of the plot rests on him being completely oblivious. It seems unlikely her would not only connect the dots, but also that he wold think she was capable of that.

@Rodgers01

And on and on. Maybe some of these things made sense in the book, and maybe people can explain them to me. But judging the movie purely on its own terms, these random twists really detracted from my overall enjoyment of the film.

Yeah, a lot of the above made me just think it was a real wasted opportunity to tell a story about modern life and marriage. Instead, we got half dark comedy, half revenge plot.

[WOOKINPANUB]

I’ve been meaning to post for the last several days, and now most of my thoughts have been expressed by others. I’ll preface my comments by saying I loved the book and looked forward to the movie for many months and it did not disappoint exactly, but I did wish a couple of things had been handled differently.

I think both leads did a tremendous job but and perhaps the direction was off just a touch (sorry Fincher fans; I like him too). I felt that from the start he was portrayed as much too likable and somewhat of a victim, and she way too dark. Thinking it was my judgement colored by the fact that I knew the outcome, I asked my boyfriend who knew nothing of the story beforehand and he said that he ssuspected from the begining that Amy was a bad egg and pretty much knew early on that she was framing Nick. He also agreed with me that Neil Patrick Harris was illsuited (Barney Stinson* ill suited*!? ) in the role of Desi.

For those that did not care for the ending, it ended pretty much the same way in the book but with a final line of Amy’s inner dialog that was both chilling and satisfying in the sense that it really hit home just how fucked Nick was going to be for the rest of his life.

[suranyi]

@Rodgers01

First, I just didn’t believe Amy’s transition to hating Nick to the point that she wanted him to die. The scenes from their early relationship (which we’re supposed to believe are true) show her as an intelligent, kind, funny, loving, sensible person. The movie would have been stronger if there had been some clouds on the horizon, some indication that she had this horrible dark side. But nope - there was nothing.

I read the book, then saw the movie. The movie didn’t quite make clear, as the book does, that at the point that Amy is revealed to be alive, it is also revealed that everything that was supposed to have happened in the past did not actually happen. That is, Amy made it up in her diary as another piece of “evidence” for the police to find.

That’s what made the book so shocking to read, to me at least. Halfway through and you suddenly find out that most of what supposedly took place was all lies.

[GovernmentMan]

@Rodgers01

First, I just didn’t believe Amy’s transition to hating Nick to the point that she wanted him to die. The scenes from their early relationship (which we’re supposed to believe are true) show her as an intelligent, kind, funny, loving, sensible person. The movie would have been stronger if there had been some clouds on the horizon, some indication that she had this horrible dark side. But nope - there was nothing.

The book makes it clear Amy has been a sociopath since she was a kid. She mentions how she changes personalities, and that “cool girl Amy” was a fake.

The movie also omits another “past stalker” in Amy’s life, which is revealed, once Nick contacts the her, as a high school friend that Amy had manipulated to do things like look like her, go up to Amy’s parents and say “I’m the new Amazing Amy”, until finally Amy frames her for an attack that broke her ribs, all because of some minor perceived grievances.

[Stoid]

I have a question for those who seen the movie and read the book or maybe just those Who have read book… In the film, Amy continues fucking Desi as he’s dying. There is no mistaking it, especially after seeing an interview with Neil Patrick Harris where he describes how particular Fincher was regarding his performance of his death.

Is it described that way in the book, or is it pure Fincher?

[chiroptera]

@Stoid

I have a question for those who seen the movie and read the book or maybe just those Who have read book… In the film, Amy continues fucking Desi as he’s dying. There is no mistaking it, especially after seeing an interview with Neil Patrick Harris where he describes how particular Fincher was regarding his performance of his death.

Is it described that way in the book, or is it pure Fincher?

I read the book and saw the movie.
In the book, Amy drugs Desi with sleeping pills, and while it’s clear she kills him it is not depicted explicitly in the book.

[kittenblue]

Saw it yesterday, and loved it. It’s been a year since I read the book, so some of the details have faded, but here’s my thoughts on some of the problems some of you have mentioned.

The character of Greta may have been all sympathetic and friendly, but she and her boyfriend are also drifter-types living on the edge, looking for any fast cash and only loyal to each other. Sure she may have been friendly, but the sight of all that cash was the clincher. I don’t think they recognized Amy, but they did recognize a fellow on-the-edge soul who wasn’t going to be able to go to the police about being robbed. And the movie didn’t change Amy’s appearance as much as she did in the book.

The origin of the baby was mentioned in two fast throwaway lines between Nick and Amy when she says she’s pregnant…he says something about the letter about the clinic saying the sample would be destroyed if they didn’t tell them otherwise, and Amy replies that she contacted the clinic and told them to NOT destroy it, but threw the letter away so Nick would find it and think the sample was lost…then when she reappeared, she had a way to get pregnant by him even though he refused to sleep with her.

Keep in mind the whole reappearance thing was only thought up when she realized that Desi wasn’t going to just give her money and keep quiet about her…he was truly obsessed with her, and was going to protect her in a very luxurious prison, though he didn’t consider it one…he was just keeping her secret. It was only after she realized how trapped she would be that she formulated a plan to eliminate the one person who knew she hadn’t been kidnapped by making him the kidnapper. When she saw the signals from Nick in the interview that he had figured out she was alive…the reference to being “taken to the woodshed” and the touching of his chin in their “tell no lies” secret sign, she hatched a plan to return home in the only way she could that would ensure no one would go to jail, and turn her into a heroic survivor…with a book deal and options for a film about her ordeal. She knew Nick now hated her guts, but she knew how to trap him to her side and still be protected from him.

As to the lack of a wound to explain the blood…well, in her original plan, her body would either never be found, or found after being in the water a long time. The fact that she had to retro-fit Desi into the original plot meant there would be some inconsistencies she couldn’t account for. And I’m not sure the whole “continuing to fuck Desi while he’s dying” thing is obvious, as someone thought it was. I didn’t get that impression at all. Those movements could be interpreted as struggling to get disentangled, though I wasn’t watching her hips as much as watching Desi’s face, so maybe what I saw as “get this guy out of me” moves were something creepier.

As unsympathetic a character as Nick is, we have to feel for him at the end, as he realizes he’s trapped (is she even really pregnant at this point, or is that a lie, too, but he knows she has the means to GET pregnant? I can’t remember from the book) for life by someone who will from now on always get her way. And wasn’t that really the source of most of Amy’s insanity…that once she stopped getting her way in life…when she had to give her parents the money that would have kept her and Nick afloat until they could start new careers, the fact that she had no say in moving to Missouri to care for Nick’s mom, that she didn’t have a say in the bar that Nick guilted her into financing…once she had no control over her life, she spun completely out of control and decided Nick had to pay for her unhappiness. I think the ending is more satisfying than having her machinations unspooled…not from a sense of justice standpoint, but from a “this is what makes this movie a true horror story” standpoint.

[Skammer]

@Stoid

I have a question for those who seen the movie and read the book or maybe just those Who have read book… In the film, Amy continues fucking Desi as he’s dying. There is no mistaking it, especially after seeing an interview with Neil Patrick Harris where he describes how particular Fincher was regarding his performance of his death.

Is it described that way in the book, or is it pure Fincher?

In the book, she loathes Desi and the only reason the grits her teeth and has sex with him is so she has his semen inside her as evidence that a rape occurred. That’s why she’s in such a hurry to get it over with, as also portrayed in the movie. After sex, she gives him sleeping pills dissolved in his drink to knock him out. The actual killing is not described, although she later tells investigators she killed him with a steak knife IIRC.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@kittenblue

…The character of Greta may have been all sympathetic and friendly, but she and her boyfriend are also drifter-types living on the edge, looking for any fast cash and only loyal to each other. Sure she may have been friendly, but the sight of all that cash was the clincher. I don’t think they recognized Amy, but they did recognize a fellow on-the-edge soul who wasn’t going to be able to go to the police about being robbed. And the movie didn’t change Amy’s appearance as much as she did in the book…

ISTR in the book that Greta did recognize Amy, but in the movie, she didn’t.

Did anyone else feel a little sorry for Amy when she was robbed by the trailer-trash twins? I was surprised when I did.

[tullsterx]

Wow, just got back from Gone Girl.

What a major disappointment. No tension at all. Very boring. Plays like a dark comedy without being funny. No effective twists, and I was not at all familiar with the book and didn’t read any about the movie beforehand. Big letdown.

Probably the best reviewed movie I’ve seen that truly sucks. I guess Knocked Up comes in a close second.