All Our Hopes and Dreams for ‘Gone Girl’ In One Blog Post
The second trailer for the Gone Girl movie was released a few days ago, and it looks MEGA CREEPY and WONDERFUL. It shows the messed-up dynamic between Nick and Amy Dunne, as well as what could have possibly happened to Amy. For those of us who have read the book (and seriously, if you haven’t, stop reading! SPOILERS AHEAD), I feel like the trailer totally encapsulates the dark and mysterious tone of the book, especially the first part. Take a peek here:
Obviously writers and directors always have to change some aspects of a book to make it work visually. But Gone Girl was so amazing that I hope very few things get altered. Here’s what I hope to see in the film adaptation:
1. Nick is the perfect combination of uninterested and confused and you are made to feel very confused by this
When you’re first reading Gone Girl, you’re really unsure of how to feel about Nick. Part of you thinks he can’t possibly be the murderer, because that would be way too easy. But as you read, you notice how cold Nick is acting (and how this coldness is juxtaposed with Amy’s diary entries, which I’ll get to in a second), and you wonder if he REALLY DID kill his wife. I mean, I think Ben Affleck capable of this? How to convey that you truly hate someone, WISH they were dead, but not know if they are dead? Man, that’s a complicated batch of feelings.
2. Gone Girl finds a cool way to show flashbacks to Amy’s diary entries
These are the best parts of the book, and I can only imagine the directors would want each entry (or some of them at least) as a separate scene. Fictional Amy meeting Fictional Nick, Fictional Amy getting dissed by Fictional Nick, Fictional Amy being super cool about everything, Fictional Amy comforting Nick after he loses his job. All the perfectly-crafted diary entries which depict Nick as a textbook sociopath.
3. The book’s entire trick works and Amy seems like a dream wife, for a long time
The most important part of Gone Girl, is that you’re given an image of Amy, and you, like the detectives and cops and lawyers, only have that to work with. Her diary paints her as the most perfect wife, ever. You need to wonder why anyone WOULD harm her or abduct her in order to become invested in the plot and initially sympathize with Amy when you find out Nick has been cheating on her. You’re lead to ALMOST believe Nick did it.
4. The characters ring true to the story—even though the casting is kind of weird
I’m not a huge fan of the cast. There I said it. Ben Affleck might be a good “average dude,” but I feel iffy about Rosamund Pike as Amy. I honestly pictured Reese Witherspoon, who could pull off playing a sweet woman as well as a psycho. Furthermore, Neil Patrick Harris looks like he’s playing Desi, and that just seems off, since Neil Patrick Harris’ roles are usually so goofy and over-the-top. But hey, if Matthew McConaughey can transform from the perfect rom-com boyfriend to nihilist detective, then maybe this strange role won’t be hard for Harris. Also Tyler Perry is supposed to play Nick’s lawyer which could be brilliant or terrible, I just don’t know.
5. The score matches the mood and that mood is scary
This is a murder mystery, so I fully expect an eerie soundtrack.
6. The scene between Amy and Desi is just as painful to watch as it was to read.
If you don’t recall, Amy tricks Desi into having sex with her so that she can frame him for rape, since she kills him. It’s very, very messed up and horrible. But it’s also a scene that needs to be done because it shows how far Amy is willing to go to get what she wants and come out unscathed.
7. Amy’s “cool girl” diary entry makes the cut
Despite Amy’s psycho tendencies, she eventually brings up a really solid truth about how many (most?) men view women, and it’s probably the most poignant part in Gone Girl. Until part two, we’re lead to believe that Amy IS a cool girl. She doesn’t care that Nick blows her off, she drinks cheap beer, adores football, and eats whatever she wants and remains a size two. But really, it’s all an act, and she’s saying that every “cool girl” is an act. Underneath the entire murder mystery is a woman’s resentment over societal pressure to be perfect and amazing ALL OF THE TIME.
8. Gone Girl gives us the big payoff: showing Amy’s staging of the entire thing
Like the Desi scene, I want to see Amy planning everything out perfectly: the overturned table, the blood all over the kitchen that gets sloppily mopped up, her sneaking panties into Nick’s office, slicing her own arm, etc.
9. Some time is spent on Amy and Nick’s post-investigation relationship
Once Amy decides she’s over playing dead, she comes back and obviously Nick wants nothing to do with her. But she’s manipulative and crazy and so she tries to train Nick into loving her, and he in turn, plays along. It’s so, so crazy and toxic and I’d like to see that on film.
10. The ending is still vague
I wasn’t sure how to feel about the ending at first. When I read that Amy was pregnant, I was like, “damn it, Nick! You should still publish your book!” But of course getting pregnant was just one of Amy’s ways of manipulating him into loving her and dropping the whole my-wife-is-a-murderer-who-framed-me thing. And for a few pages, we even think Nick has finally come to terms with their twisted relationship. Until he tells her he feels sorry for her because she has to wake up as herself every day. In a recent article on Time, author Gillian Flynn explained that she radically changed the ending for the film adaptation. This might be good news to some, but I kind of liked how creepy and terrible the original allowed Amy and Nick to be.
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