Ben Affleck: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

1. Nick Dunne - Gone Girl

Gone Girl is a movie all about deception: it comes across as a simple potboiling thriller based on what based on the cover is a flavour of the month novel, yet emerges as a scathing assault on relationships and the sanctity of marriage; what could have been David Fincher on auto-pilot is actually him working at his most darkly scathing; and two performances that seemed easy to lock down from the trailers are actually some of the best their actors have ever given. Of course much more focus is put on Rosamund Pike's Amy, whose meek personality and abusive relationship are revealed as all an act at the midway point, turning a missing person whodunnit into something much darker, but Affleck is just as strong and intriguing as her everyman husband, Nick. Calling Nick an everyman certainly burns, because even though he's the victim he's still a somewhat simple husband who can't deliver on his original promise of marriage, but that's the point of the movie; in relationships neither side is perfect (although psychos are definitely worse). Affleck carries this perfectly, over the course of the movie evolving from happy, out-of-love schlub into a smiling facade that hides a developed anger. Let's just hope it's not based on real experiences. But for every high there's a low, so let's take a look at Affleck's less-than-finest hours.