In 2012, Gillian Flynn struck gold with her third novel Gone Girl, another in a growing line of unique mysteries with Dark Places and Sharp Objects preceding. Why did Gone Girl really spike her name up to the top? The story is full of so many twists and questionable facades that it really acts as a successful revision on genre mystery novels. That, or does the cover look similar enough to Fifty Shades of Grey that people have just kind of mentally connected the two? While I have to admit the latter is somewhat true, it is the book itself that strongly merits critical favor. Flynn's sense of perspective is impeccable, shifting back and forth from different narrators with extreme tonal changes. Gone Girl picks up the day of Amy Elliott Dunne's disappearance from her home in Carthage, Missouri. Her husband Nick is trying to piece together what may have happened, while slowly peeling back the truth on what was already happening between them. The whole town soon becomes a part of the investigation and the police, the locals, the reader and even the central characters are never exactly sure of what the hell is happening. Toward the end of last year, it was announced that Reese Witherspoon's production company Pacific Standard had purchased the rights to the filmic adaptation of Gone Girl, with Witherspoon clarifying herself as merely a producer (though her age and appearance do put her in-line with Amy.) Soon after that news came forward, an "in talks" rumour circulated that David Fincher could be the film's director. With his last film being the first part of Stieg Larsson's "Millennium Trilogy", Fincher may or may not have plenty of other stuff to work on (also including a 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea film with Disney.) Suffice it to say, David Fincher would be not only be absolutely perfect for the job, but the film seriously needs the director to be sure to separate itself from some its lesser literary comparisons (
which also have upcoming films..)
If there is one thing to say about the director's work, he has a strong leaning toward the darker side of things. Whether it be in subject or just in style alone, his films run with the grime and filth of whatever is buried beneath society. Looking at his
real directorial debut (as in, not including Alien 3), Se7en is not only about a sadistic serial killer, but effectively shows the horror of the good guys feeding into the killer's rhetoric. The infamous "what's in the box" ending is much more terrifying than the actual killer's actions throughout the film. Flynn's novel needs to be on the screen with this sensibility: The dark, cold lighting and the relentless panic. Fincher has displayed this aesthetic in almost every one of his films, and has evoked that urgency most notably in his second film The Game. The initial protagonist of Gone Girl is essentially going through an identical experience to Michael Douglas's character in that film. Someone must be fucking with him. And without spoilers, let's just say there is a good dose of that happening. One of the biggest strengths of Fincher as a director is his attention to detail. This probably correlates to why he typically deals with investigative or legal stories. His depiction of the Zodiac investigations of the 1970s plays out like a really strong novel, and all from the point of view of highly obsessive newspaper men. So much of Gone Girl is an investigation, and not only so for the actual police in the story, but for each individual character. Nick and his twin sister Go have, at times, a completely different set of clues to follow while the police relentlessly push forward their own agenda.
For his last two films, David Fincher has worked with a pair of brilliant editors, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall. Their skill allowed for The Social Network to juggle three or four narratives from different points in time with the utmost fluidity. Similarly, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo hit a near 3-hour running time, but felt maybe half that length. Gone Girl is told from many different points in time, and from two consistently differing points of view. Flynn's writing is very fast paced, and so would be Fincher's directing, so his editing team would be essential in putting this complex narrative on the screen. The book's biggest strength is Flynn's brilliant handling of the "unreliable narrator." Describing the exact lengths to which she puts that to practice would require a lot of major spoilers, but she essentially uses it to carefully unravel the mystery, and often to slap the reader in the face. Fincher has dealt with this kind of narrator well, most notably with 1999's Fight Club, where as I am sure you know, the two main characters are eventually revealed to be one person. On the surface, Gone Girl would naturally fit so well into David Fincher's filmography as a murder mystery featuring fiercely strong and independent women, as well as men who despise them. If he could pick up Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for the score again, this film would be certified gold.