Gone Girl

 WARNING! This film and book review has severe language  due to the type of film it is!

 Summary of book and film

 I’m going to let Bleecker the cat (owned by the two main characters) describe this film:

 “My minions are terrible people! I have seen things that will haunt me.”

I’m now going to let Barney Stinson describe a crazy girl: “Let me illustrate. A girl is allowed to be crazy as long as she is equally hot. Thus if she’s this crazy, she has to be this hot. if she’s THIS CRAZY, she has to be THIS HOT.  You want the girl to be above this line. Also known as the Viki Mendoza diagonal.(Girl I  dated, she played jump rope with that line. She’d shave her head, then lose ten pounds. She’d stab me with a fork, then get a boob job. I should give her a call!)”

And now I’m now going to describe the film!

Gone Girl is a film about a man whose wife has disappeared and the police and press circuit believe that he is not innocent. His wife left him a treasure hunt as it was their fifth wedding anniversary which may contain clues to her disappearance…

Verity read the book before Christmas and told me to read it as she thought I would really enjoy it. I read it in January and I really liked it. Since the film was on amazon prime, I said to Verity why don’t we do a book/movie film comparison. Verity loved this idea! And here we are.

What I liked

I find it interesting in this film and book that I find a lot of the main characters apart from Go and Bleeker the cat not very likeable at all. Both Nick and Amy are terrible toxic people which I think is rare for the main characters to be. Normally most writers try to write their main characters as reasonably flawed but likeable people so I like this twist. I also like twists that Nick and Amy seem like the most perfect couple (in one scene Amy says, ‘We’re so cute I want to punch us in the face!”)

The acting is really good! Rosmund Pike gives a stellar performance, and it is definitely worth of at least the Oscar nomination she got. I haven’t seen Julianne Moore’s Still Alice to compare the performances as I have heard people say that Rosmund Pike should have won. Ben Affleck also gives a very good performance in this film. Neil Patrick Harris (aka Barney Stinson) plays a supporting role in this film and I really liked his performance as a somewhat creepy man who is in someways similar and someways not to Barney Stinson. I think it was funny casting by the way. I love Barney Stinson!

I really liked Nick’s twin sister Go (short for Margo) as she was the most likeable character. I think this is because she is the most human in both the book and the film. She is a very good sister to her brother. Although I do find it worrying with her obsession with the word bitch as she is a woman. Both Go and Nicks favourite word is bitch which is partially due to their father who is also a terrible human being.

I have to say it, I really like Bleeker the cat which is why I let him have his own opinion in this film. I was saying to myself during both reading the book and watching the film, what are Bleeker’s feelings on this film and book. Bleeker is Nick and Amy’s cat and he is treated like the king he was born to be. He has his own room!! Lucky cat!!! My dogs sleep downstairs in the dining room. Although Verity thought of something interesting- she thought when reading the book that the cat should be black like a witches (due to the book/film’s investigation of women being typecast in certain roles). But maybe that would be too obvious, and in the film Bleaker is cat a marmalade colour.

What I didn’t like

I think some of my main criticisms with this film is that at times the tone feels rushed when compared to the book. For half the book you have sweet, kind, gentle, perfect Amy and then with occasional hints of her true colours. Then it turns out its all a lie! I don’t think this came across as well in the film (the film is two and a half hours long) And you only get about one hour of this fabricated storyline. For the rest of the film you get the true Amy. I think the book is better as there is so much detail into the fake Amy which is not explored in the film this makes it seem not as a shock when it turns out to be not real.

Verity’s Views

I read ‘Gone Girl’ just before Christmas, and it was one of those stories that had infiltrated my consciousness, in that I knew the massive plot spoiler! Despite that, I tore through it in a day, and particularly enjoyed a lot of the satirical observations about gender roles within relationships and marriage.

Like Row, I feel the film is a pretty strong adaption, the whole cast is really good- Rosamund Pike is  brilliant, and Ben Affleck is the spit of how the character is described in the book. As Rowan has said before, they are aided marvellously by Bleeker the cat 🐱 . Despite the fact that the movie is two and a half hours, it moves along and keeps the pace well, there’s lots of flashes of dark humour, and the cinematography is interesting- all pale muted tones occasionally splattered with blood. It’s a film that manages to be as clever and lingering as the book, and for that I give it a 👍!!!

Conclusion and Rating

Overall I think like almost every book to film adaptions that the book is better than the film (apart from a few exceptions like Lord of the rings. That’s just my opinion though). I think that the film is very good and I would give it maybe an 7 ¾ out of 10 as the acting and tone of the film is very good. The film does follow the book as well as it could I think. The book has far more detail and the twist are far more drawn out which makes them more dramatic. I would give the book an 8.5 out of 10.

Texts Back and Forth contains spoilers

Opening scene where nick describes what he’d like to do to his wife.

Me: that’s creepy!  

Verity: Ben Affleck is the spit of the character in the book

Me: He knows how to flatter a woman  (sarcasm)

Verity: He looks like an asshole

Me: I think he’s quite handsome, not my type though

Verity: What would you get for a wood themed present?

Me: Handmade coffee table or a rocking chair

Verity: Yeah good

Verity: I always fell like the ginger cat (Bleeker) is the wrong choice aesthetically. Like it should be neutral toned cat. Or a black cat, like she’s a witch

Me: Ooh good thinking.

Me: The cat has its own room!!!!???

Verity: Hahahaha

Me: Those drawings are very generic children’s book illustrations, they look like Milly Molly Mandy or something.

Verity: Yes, do you think they should be better? Puddles is a very good name for a dog.

Me: Close to what Sophie calls her dog in the Sophie books. I love the Sophie books!!!

Verity: Yes 😊 

 (I’m referring to a series of children’s books by Dick King Smith where the main character is a girl named Sophie who when she grows up wants to be a lady farmer. It’s a really good series and sometimes I still like to read it for nostalgia. Verity also loved these books.)

Me: I would like my future husband to have some idea of what I do with my day. Although not keep tabs all the time. I don’t know my blood type. I’ve heard mines a rare blood type.

Verity: Mum knows. She doesn’t know mine 😂

Me: lol

Me: we’re so cute I want to punch us in the face.

Verity: 😂

Me: He has the perfect blah face for the press conference

Verity: Baaad

 Me: You look like hammered shit

Verity: Hammered shit, good phrase

Verity: Neil P H! Did you ever watch how I Met Your Mother?

Me: Yes I did hes very good as Barney Stinson. His character is very funny and shallow.

Me: Nick is a cheater!!!

Verity: I know 😱

Me: I remember when you did a play and your famous line was we’re fucked.

Verity: That’s very sweet of you to remember that.

Me: Ice cream stress eating!! I love things by candlelight

Verity: Me too!

Me: The press seems awful to deal with

Verity: Yes, it does. Being obsessed with a murder is in general quite intense.

 Me: crime junkies.

Me: What’s it like in a fertility clinic I wonder?

Verity: Lots of little rooms and porn magazines

Me Yes I remember that in the book

Me Those sofas are such boring colours.

Verity: The colour tones in this are all quite muted and dull

Me: Nobody suspected the cat of murder?!!!

Verity: Hahahaha! You should do one of those trailer re edits to make it look like it was the cat.

Me: Bitch is their favourite word. Do you remember for my 5th birthday party I had a Punch and Judy shoe? I meant show I dislike autotext.

Verity: I feel like they might be out of fashion now! 😊

Me: Barney Stinson again!!

Verity: He’s funny casting for this in a way

Me: He’s a bit creepy

Verity: Super creepy

Me: He didn’t deserve what she did

Verity: He’s very controlling

Me: I really want the cats point of view of all this

Verity: You should write it in the review. (and so I have)

Me:Ooh nice indies! I meant undies autotext again!

Verity: lol!

Me: Oh my holy shit!

Verity Yuck!

Me: Poor Barney Stinson!

Verity: Ew!

Me: Well way to make an entrance!

Verity: It’s great isn’t it good fancy dress costume?

Me: She’s like an adult Cady Heron in Mean Girls. Only more extreme and more psychotic

Verity: That’s a very good observation! Don’t you mean Regina though?

Me: Oh yeah she’s more regina. She would make a far better detective with her scheming and thinking outside the box.

Verity: That’s the premise of Silence of the Lambs. They get a serial killer to aid in finding another. You’re right I agree.

Me: I’ve never seen Silence of the Lambs. I’ve heard it’s really good.

Me: That’s a really nice shower, very spacious!

Verity: Yes very nice!

Me: I would like a more spacious shower

Verity: Me too!

Me: Pancakes!!

Verity: Yum!!

Verity: Just sat there with the cat.

Me: The cats like daddy I’ve seen some real shit

Me: They are in need of some serious therapy ironic for a college major in psychology

Verity: Yeees

The End