Gone Girl: The Movie

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Clarissa

October 4, 2014

So we watched Gone Girl last night. It’s definitely watchable and a good way to pass time. Of course, the actors were completely wooden and the extreme luxury of the interiors made zero sense within the plot. The 39-year-old protagonist was, for some reason, made 4 years younger. The screenplay was written by the book’s author, so it’s hardly a mistake.

In the movie, Amy’s rage is even more baseless than in the book. She is dehumanized and presented as a complete psychotic in the movie. Still, the audience identified with her. When Nick hit Amy at the end of the movie, there was a collective gasp in the audience. If you watch the movie, you will see that there is a much more hardcore scene of violence that didn’t elicit such an emotional response.

I overheard two young women saying that “this is like the best movie ever” at the end of the show. I’d been worried that Hollywood would attach a happy ending to the film but what I didn’t realize is that the audience sees the ending as already very happy. The women in the audience seemed completely identified with Amy. As I suspected, this is definitely a cultural phenomenon.

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5 responses to “Gone Girl: The Movie”

el

October 4, 2014

*spoiler*

I read the novel’s plot on wiki and was surprised by the heroine getting this ending despite being a cold-blooded killer. Not only has she escaped justice and is (presumably) happy to become a mother, she will also become extremely rich after publishing her book. Today was Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, for Jews and the contrast between Amy’s character and seeking forgiveness from people one wronged is striking.

\\ The women in the audience seemed completely identified with Amy. As I suspected, this is definitely a cultural phenomenon.

Could you offer an explanation? Is it because of identifying with feeling trapped and having no way out? Feeling general bleakness of life, of everything in it (career, relationships, etc.) ? If, despite “the recession is completely over,” young women feel this way, it’s so depressing.

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1. Clarissa
  
  October 4, 2014
  
  It isn’t really possible to figure out what a novel is about by reading a wikipedia summary. Amy lashes out against Nick’s and Desi’s horrifying sexism and hatred of women. That’s the whole point of the novel. The men don’t see her as fully human. They want a smiling, constantly cheerful, sexually accommodating robot. The moment she becomes an actual human being with her own needs, wants, thoughts, feelings, they castigate her. This is what she strikes out against. And the audience (both the readers and the viewers) seem to share that rage against the habit of treating women as things.
  
  This has nothing whatsoever to do with the recession or the economy. This story is not about that at all. It’s about an age-long female rage finally finding its expression.
  
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  1. el
    
    October 4, 2014
    
    Will her husband treat her differently at the end?
    
    If not, for the completely happy ending, she will have to shoot him in the back, while he is sleeping, like in RL case you blogged about. /joke
    
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    1. Clarissa
      
      October 4, 2014
      
      “Will her husband treat her differently at the end?”
      
      – Yes, the poor idiot is completely beaten down in the end.
      
      The tragedy of the story is that Amy is an extremely persistent, hard-working, brilliant and meticulous individual. If she hadn’t dedicated her life to chasing some stupid pair of pants, she could have achieved anything, become a billionaire, created a flourishing business, etc. Yet all of these skills and all of this hard work is dedicated to retaining this pathetic loser of a guy in her life. This happens so often! And it is so, so sad!
      
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  2. musteryou
    
    October 4, 2014
    
    The Yankee is a strange beast. I just read a Time magazine article that instructs that some marriages survive and you have to have a huge amount of support from friends.
    
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