Gone Girl (Movie) – True to the book mostly

I loved the book ‘Gone Girl‘ by Gillian Flynn (and my views on it was slightly emotional and too full of spoilers) and I did post recently about my views on the trailer and how I am a little skeptical about Rosamund Pike playing Amy Dunne. Well, after watching the movie, if I was a hat wearing person, I would tip my hat off to her. Wow. What an incredible performance. Bloody brilliant. Especially the scene where she plays in the camera that she is being dragged in Desi’s house, that was whoa! And Ben Affleck plays the part perfectly well. But the best performance was by Rosamund Pike, no doubt. The screenplay, the sound effects both were very good. Of course, the background of why Amy behaves that way and how her parents are responsible is not explained in much detail, and honestly that would have become a little boring too, even though they did bring up about it when Nick talks about her parents in a book release function. But without that background and without all the thoughts of Nick when they are drifting apart and his close relationship with his parents and his broken home (his father is there only in one scene and not much is explained there) it sort of appears a little one sided, as in it portrays Amy as a clear cut villain except for the first 1 hour or so where my friends did get annoyed at Nick, whereas in the book there are too many in depth details and you would even feel bad for Amy sometimes. And then at the end you would feel happy that they are with each other and didn’t mess up anyone else’s life. I felt that they sort of deserved each other. But in the movie, it sort of portrayed that Nick was the victim. Some of the dialogues were very awesome and funny too.

Given the size of the book and the complexities and the history of the characters you can only do so much with the screenplay but they still managed to be very true to the book to the maximum level possible. The casting was too good. Carrie Coon as Margo was exactly like she was portrayed in the book. I did like the sound effects in this movie. One scene which I thought was well done, even though I think there could have been a little more emotion from Ben Affleck is when Amy comes back , with blood spattered on her dress, back to Nick and hugs him, he is taken aback for a while but then when the cameras flash he hugs her back and says in her ear ‘you f**king bitch’. That sort of summarizes their relationship. Surprisingly the sex scenes weren’t cut abruptly but were modified a bit to not show them clearly, which is much better than the abrupt cut and change of scene. Overall the movie was very well done and I liked how they related to the book well with a smart screenplay and a big thumbs up for Rosamund Pike for portraying Amy so well.

 

 

Gone Girl – Trailer

I absolutely loved the book ‘Gone Girl‘ (that post of mine will have spoilers) by Gillian Flynn. Just loved the characters in it, the good, the bad and the grey. And I am for sure going to watch the movie that is releasing here next week, 31st Oct to be precise. But to be very honest, when I saw the trailer first, I was a little apprehensive. Because you see when I read the book and heard that they are going to do the movie, I somehow thought  that Nicole Kidman would be apt for the role of Amy. Don’t ask me why, it is one of those unnecessary thoughts that creep up when you read a book and you sort of put some known actors in it because you know they can carry it well. I haven’t seen Rosamund Pike’s acting except for the one in Die Another Day and well, you know how it is in Bond movies.  And I have told my friends to please please read the book before they come to the movie, even though I know that it isn’t going to happen. But if you are planning to see this movie (even though I am going to go with absolutely no high hopes) my kind suggestion would be to read the book first (and hopefully you haven’t read the Wikipedia already) because I know that a lot of what is written cannot be easily translated to a movie script and the book was a such a pleasure to read, if you like those kind of drama, family, romance (or not), sarcasm, crime, thriller, humor etc.

And if you are in a place where the movie is already released and you have seen it, let me know your thoughts on the same.

Gone Girl – uncharacteristic & gripping

Gone Girl – Honestly I am dumb stuck now to really write anything about this book, but if I don’t do it now and sleep off, I might lose the flow. Hell, I wouldn’t be able to sleep unless I let my feelings out. So here it goes.

Please pardon me upfront if there are any expletives because I am sure there will be a few, because I have been saying them a little loudly when I was reading this book. And there will be quite a lot of spoilers here.

Main characters: Lance Nick Dunne – The antagonist , Amy Dunne – The antagonist. Yup…that is the truth.. and whom do they antagonize.. YOU… so be ready 😉

Part 1

Story start with Nick finds his wife, whom he doesn’t love anymore, missing on their 5th anniversary and it looks like a kidnap at the outset. Cops come in and then they find the first clue of the treasure hunt which Amy always does for Nick for their anniversary. Along with this story, we also find specific diary entries of Amy for almost 5 years. Slowly the story of how they fell in love, how they fell out of it, how Nick started to detest the presence of Amy, how he finds himself a very young mistress and starts cheating on Amy for more than a year, how messed up was Nick’s life with his troubled father and after-divorced happy mom, how Nick relies on his wife’s money, how he is more comfortable with his twin sister and how she loves him no matter what, how everyone starts thinking of the story that Amy might be dead and that Nick is the killer…etc etc.. until he slowly uncovers the clues one by one, which leads him on a trail and ends up in his sister’s house. The end result: Nick is framed by Amy for her death (or was it ?)

Part 2

When you finally come out of shock that this girl can actually be alive and this stupid husband of hers is actually framed, the story continues with Amy explaining how she took her own sweet time to frame him with her murder once she found out that they have drifted from their own pretentious lives and their true selves are no long rosy and shiny as it was to be and all they are left with is resentment towards each other. But because she was always portrayed, as in the books her parents have popularized on her name, that she can never be wrong, she takes it up to her to punish the ones who hurt her and play God. She explains how she finds out about her husband’s lover and how she started planning this stuff and how she took her sweet time for almost the same year her husband was cheating on her to place the clues which is so freaking perfect, that if he got caught he would be in the jail for a sweet long time. But she has to hide till then. It also follows the story of how Nick is now the bad boy of the town and his struggles to show to everyone he really cares for his wife (even if it is to bring her back). It also shows how she struggles during that time, how she takes pleasure in seeing Nick pretending to want her back and how he has seen the error of his ways etc. Nick ends the liaison with his mistress Andie, after almost being forced to by his lawyer Tanner, because that would never work out for him in any way, any time. Then Amy is robbed and she is saved by Desi, her ex-flame, who tries to woo her back by holding her captive, without making it look like it. But Amy, being the Amazing Amy, starts to soften towards Nick because of his shows and his pleas and his right words, which is what she expects and his confessions to the world ..and since now she is held captive by Desi, she thinks of how to make the best out of the situation. And voila, she heads back to Nick, all battered and physically abused and flies into his arms, leaving everyone who had followed their story breathless with happiness.

Part 3

Nick knows that she framed him, and now she is confessing that Desi kidnapped her on the day of their 5th anniversary and she was held captive and she was raped. Finally she got a chance and she saved herself by slashing him and escaped from him. She does her physical examinations, records her statements in which she doesn’t back out from her story even one inch, Nick is still a abuser, spend thrift, didn’t want a child etc etc…but she is back to him for good. Nick is freaking scared of her now, because he cannot kill her (when he really really wants to), neither forgive her (for what she made him go through) or accept her (there by accepting that he too messed up…well he does accept it but doesn’t want her anyway). She even confesses to him about how she managed to kill Desi, who in fact was trying to help her and have her for himself (in his own freaking scary way), and even when Nick , his sister and the only one cop who believes him, try to get a single wrong word from her to frame her and put her behind the bars, nothing works out. She has all her bases covered very well. She also has a honest talk with Nick on how they are right for each other because they both are so wrong in their own ways. And when Nick tries to outsmart her by publishing his side of the story as a novel, guess what, she becomes pregnant …how.. well with the sperm bank stuff they both had registered before. Now after almost a year, she is going to deliver a baby and they are doing ok, if not normal but they are getting there slowly.

 

When I started I did not have a clue of what I was getting into. In fact  the first 200 pages got me literally tired, because of the character of Nick. I have seen such men so close to home that I did not want to read about them. It was freaking depressing. Honestly, I even thought I will drop the book and pick another one. But for some reason I kept going on. I started seeing it like a therapy :). Reading about such men, who love the notion of someone in their head and try to juxtapose it on to a human being…blah blah blah.. I don’t want to go there actually. But seriously, I was so enraged with him that I was cursing him. That too with the diary entries of Amy, it just gets you to really slap this guy if he was standing in front of you. Actually, when I think about it now, it is a nice trick. Because if those diary entries weren’t there, the rage would not be so acute on Nick. You wouldn’t think so much bad of him. He is just another normal mama’s boy who likes to impress and if nothing happens he keeps quite. They are a common category. But with those sweet sorry faced entries of a girl who just wanted to be with this guy and yet so afraid of his mood swings and  flings and above all his unwillingness to salve their marriage which is going on a downtrend, well I was on the ‘Hate Nick’ team, may be because it is just a woman thing.

But when the clues unfold and when Nick finds out that his sweet brilliant wife (really really brilliant) has actually caught him fooling around with Andie and has left those clues with double meanings (one where he finds that she is giving away clues to bring him back memories of their sweet times and there by trying to save their marriage by bringing him back to her and well, he almost loves her back …and the one he finds out that she knew about Andie and voila, those clues now give a totally different meaning…like she is admonishing him and punishing him for his deeds). That was freaking awesome….those clues. When Nick finds out her history of playing the God and punishing people, he really wants to be on the good side of her and wants her to be back so that he is not doomed. He just can’t compete with her brilliance. I was like WTF. I didn’t know what to even think of this girl. She is too brilliant. So much planning, neat and disciplined execution. Bloody hell, if she wasn’t the antagonist I would be on her side. But she is equally wrong to play with some one like that. Its not only Nick’s mistake, they just fell apart because they were not those people who they liked earlier on. In tamizh we have a saying “aasai arubadhu naal moham muppadhu naal” and I would translate it like this “Love lasts longer than attraction or pretended attraction”. What these two had was pretended attraction. He had his own way of looking @ Amy , not the real her, but his imagination of her and Amy wanted to be someone he would love, because she figured him out much earlier than him. But when they both let go of their pretensions, they don’t find themselves attracted or even able to love each other. They understand each other, sure.. but love, nope. And Amy gets angry that he starts becoming more spineless especially after losing his job and coming back to his town and starting the bar with her money. Now he has no other way other than to be with her because of his bar and her money invested in it. She even tells you that she could do what a normal woman would do, divorce him, let him go and start a new life. But she is not a normal woman, she has lived in her own world, thanks to her parents, which is as pretentious as Nick’s. And she wants him bad. And Nick doesn’t stand a chance. Even though I started with a big ‘What” when Amy started to tell her part, even though I didn’t get convinced that she was in any way right in what she did, I cannot but admire her for the way she carried her plans out. Even till the last line she is trying to get a upper hand on Nick.. even after 10 years… Wow…At one point time, actually Amy explains this, both Nick and Amy realize that they need each other, even though they are not right. Its like they are used to the other person for all the wrong reasons and the best way is to stay married… Oh God…these two people really got my brain addled today. I am not going to sleep for some more time (bloody hell, look how big the post has become…)

I think I can keep going on and on. I haven’t even said anything about Go (Nick’s sister aka Margo) or Nick’s Dad (and how he did affect Nick and how he made Nick so not to become his father’s version) or Nick’s mom (whom he adored a lot and who pampered him in the worst way) or Amy’s parents (who being psychologists did affect Amy in a very wrong way by applying their theories and practices on her) etc.. They all do add value to these two main characters, especially Go. The very very normal human being in the whole set. She is this adorable twin sister who loves her brother, in spite of everything and always stands by him.

Too much psychology that it hurts, in a good way though. A definite must read if you like these kind of weird characters who can challenge your beliefs. They do, you know, shake your instincts, your beliefs, your sense of right and wrong…Ok… now for a little quiz

Whose side are you on after this story is done

A. Amy, because she is smart, manipulative and brings the man down to his knees just because he almost went away from her and her beliefs.

B. Nick, because he is the poor manipulated stupid guy who did one mistake of cheating on his wife and got punished freaking royally

c. Both, because each deserved the other and thank god they stuck with each other and did not spoil some one else’s life

d. None of the above, because I am so tired of these kind of character, I don’t care … I just want to move to my next story and not think of these morons.

What’s your answer ? 😉

 

Song:

Imagine Nick singing Criminal (by Britney Spears), talking about Amy 😉