Fincher directs Gone Girl with a glossy elegance — the coolness of his touch as a director lends itself well to this story of unlikable people. But the end result is a movie that’s closer to his stylish but hollow The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo than with his more virtuoso work like Fight Club. It’s not just that Gone Girl lacks the conviction of its own nastiness — it’s simply not the toxic soulmate saga that its source material is, a brilliantly cynical take on what it means to put effort into your relationship. Instead, Gone Girl feels more like the story of someone who’s gotten involved with a sociopath, and given the dark places it goes in its second half (which features an instance of stunningly staged violence), this imbalance makes the film feel like it has absorbed the edge of misogyny shown by some of its characters. After all, marriage is about a union between two people, not one person trapping another — even if you’re depicting that solidarity in the most bitterly ironic sense.
Deadney looks like Jessica Chastain in that photo
