Gone Girl ***

Toxic marriages.  Misogyny. Infidelity.  Gender roles and stereotypes.  The actual or perceived definitions of a "cool girl."  These are just some the many concepts that director David Fincher and screenwriter Gillian Flynn attempt to explore in Gone Girl, one of the first major Oscar contenders to get a wide release this year.

Adapted from Flynn's bestselling page-turner and almost fully utilizing Fincher's talent for the Dark Arts, this is a wildly entertaining piece of film-making.  The problem, I suppose, is that it's aiming to be something more and it falls just a little bit short.

Giving much of a plot synopsis would, unfortunately, spoil it all.  So, on that front, I'll be brief.

The movie stars Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike as Nick and Amy Dunne, an all-too-good-looking couple caught in an bad marriage of epic proportions, though that only becomes clear as the story unfolds.  On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Amy disappears under mysterious and apparently violent circumstances.  And, as you might expect, Nick finds himself at the center of the police investigation.

What follows is a compelling mystery that moves from being a simple case of a missing person to surprising game of cat-and-mouse, with a twist about halfway through that, if you didn't read the book, will likely knock your socks off.

The movie delves deep into all kinds of human depravity.  People try -- often times successfully -- to destroy one another.  Innocence is lost and the darkest of foibles are exposed.  This is, of course, Fincher's specialty, having directed classic tales of moral decay like Fight Club, Se7en, and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  Nobody does this kind of movie better, which, for me anyway, begs the question: Why is David Fincher, one of the most sought after directors in the game, retracing his steps?  He could have made this movie in his sleep.  Aren't there greater challenges for him out there?
That's not to say that this is a bad movie or a waste of time.  It's a fine film.  And, it's a mainstream, studio-backed movie aimed at adults, a niche that is all to often neglected in today's marketplace.  But, as a fan of Fincher, I would have preferred to see him sink his teeth into something more substantial.

The movie's flaws are the same as the book's.  Both the film and its source material take aim at large cultural and societal questions, only to neglect them in the end in favor of a narrative that works to pull the audience in without ever really making them confront the big questions the author originally raised.

Too literal to be satire or a parable and too over-the-top to be legit social commentary, Gone Girl finds itself caught in between two competing objectives: tell a good story or make a point.  Ultimately, it opts for the former, which is fine.  But why waste our time raising questions that you're not prepared to really explore?

I suppose I'm nitpicking.  This is, once again, a very fine film.  The cast -- particularly the two leads -- is very good, with excellent supporting turns by Tyler Perry as Nick Dunne's skeezy lawyer and Carrie Coon as his all-too-supportive twin sister.  The one exception: Neil Patrick Harris shows up in a pivotal role for which he's awkwardly under-qualified.

And, of course, Fincher's technical prowess is spot on.  The score (by Fincher's go-to guys, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) is one of the best of the year and the cinematography (by another Fincher regular Jeff Cronenweth) is unique and artful.  This is, on all fronts, a very well-made piece of work.

I really did enjoy this movie.  But, I think it might also end up being the most overrated film of the year.