‘Gone Girl’ provides different perspective on marriage

By Rafael Abreu / Columnist

There is an interest in the scandalous, the wrong and the shocking. People love tales of sex, violence and horrible people, and their reasons for being attracted to these types of stories can vary from entertainment to reflection.

When put to paper, a story about a couple, a jealous spouse or a repressed individual can either be well regarded or considered disposable. It takes skill to pull off and get away with such a good story, regardless of the subject matter.

That’s “Gone Girl.” Directed by David Fincher and written by Gillian Flynn (author of the best-selling novel), this story about a modern marriage starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike is all kinds of trashy, surprising and hilarious.

“Gone Girl” benefits from the viewer not at all knowing a thing about the story, so in the spirit of that attitude, I will do my best to not bring it up.

The marketing for this film does a good job at not revealing any twists and only giving the viewer the set-up. However, after seeing the film, I feel that even that was too much. I feel people should only know the bare basics at maximum, but there are things here and there that might paint a different picture than what really goes on. This is equal parts good (as it doesn’t reveal the film’s true nature) and bad (as it presents opposing expectations); on the flipside, knowing about the film’s ending might also be beneficial to understanding the film better, but the right word we have for that is “repeated viewings.”

“Gone Girl” is the type of movie I would see again for a variety of reasons, such as to see the film after all of my revelations. A story can be different once you know all that’s been hidden, and “Gone Girl” is no exception.

Marriage is what “Gone Girl” deals with and what it’s really about. We see two modern-day people who are not perfect and as flawed as can be. While there is a mystery in it, too, the film uses this mystery to analyze the marriage between Nick and Amy Dunne. Even before seeing this film, I was aware that the “mystery” was not our main importance.

It’s a good thing Affleck and Pike are so phenomenal, since it’s a story about them. The mystery of a disappearance reveals the flaws in their marriage and themselves as characters.

While Pike is amazing (a word I use rarely), props must also be given to Affleck; both actors play characters that try to keep up appearances and have oh-so-many secrets— the type of secrets you wouldn’t want anyone to know about. The supporting cast is excellent too, with Tyler Perry as the highlight: high-price, never-losing lawyer Tanner Bolt. He also provides the film’s most laughs.

What’s that? You didn’t expect such a serious-looking movie like “Gone Girl” to be funny?

Well, depending on how you look at it, this film is either a dark thriller with comedic bits, or a hilarious satire/meta film. There are many lines, actions and facial expressions that bring about laughter; some of the comedy is either hilarious on its own or very funny in a dark kind of way.

I’m not saying that “Gone Girl” is a comedy, but you could very much see it that way. It has enough comedic moments that you could label the film as at least partially a comedy, but then that might undercut the more serious and grim aspects.

Yet, even with the darkness, the film still manages to find laughs. Honestly, I’m not sure whether that’s because the film is self-aware or because Flynn is just fond of comedy. Again, if you see this film as a satire or self-aware, then it makes more sense; otherwise, it’s just darkly comic, but with more laughs than expected.

What one might take from “Gone Girl” varies, but I knew its tale on marriage was at the center of it all; marriage as a metaphor, marriage as an examination, marriage as a piece of satire.

The film’s initial mystery brings about commentary regarding not only marriage but the media, the people around us, secrets, lies and even melodramatic stories. In different hands, “Gone Girl” could have been terribly mediocre at best, but Fincher (the master that he is) makes it so much better than that, crafting a well-made thriller that has a lot to say and a lot to leave with its audience.