Is there
anything such as the ‘perfect crime’? Those who believe in truth and cosmic
justice and the long hand of the law will tell you that there is no such thing;
the truth will always come out. But, what if the crime was intended in such a
way that the truth would come out, but not in its true form, but in a
manipulated form which would mislead, confuse and concoct a truth that never
was. Gone Girl is that ‘perfect crime’. A perfect crime, planned with just the
right amount of imperfection that it looked like the perfect crime gone wrong.
Gone Girl is one
of the tautest and smartest psychological thrillers to come on screen in recent
times. It is not a thriller in the strictest sense of the word, it is a crime
drama, that is not as much an investigation as it is a revelation. Yes, the
drama unravels itself scene after scene, and it always remains a step ahead of
even the shrewdest brains who have watched thrillers by the dozen. A wife has
disappeared, and the husband knows nothing about it, her parents know nothing
about it, and the neighbours know nothing about it, and now the cops want to
know all about it. Prime suspect, the husband. Yes, he has the motive, he has
the opportunity and he is the last person who saw her, perhaps the last person
who saw her alive! All eyes on the husband as he bumbles through the initial
phase of the trouble, he mismanages his image and before he knows he has been
branded the killer of ‘Amazing Amy’. Is he the killer or not? Has he committed
the perfect crime and set someone up, and will the cops ever get to the bottom
of it all? Watch Gone Girl for the answers.
The best thing
about Gone Girl is that you don’t know who to trust, at least until the end of
the first hour of the film. Everyone is under the shadow of doubt, everyone is
a suspect and everyone is a possible victim. And then comes the revelation as
the audience gets to know the identity of the manipulator. From then on it is a
guessing game as we try to figure out what the manipulator is going to do next;
who is going to be set up, who is going to be framed, who is going to be
killed? If the first hour confuses you in many ways about the truth, the second
hour amazes and startles you with the sheer criminal genius of the manipulator.
The modus operandi of the crime is brilliantly explained and you can look and
look and think and think about any loopholes and you wouldn’t find them, unless
you are a forensic expert maybe. Then, comes the great surprise when the
manipulator gets manipulated! Can the manipulator come back?
Gone Girl is a
brilliantly written non-linear narrative which puts us back and forth, before
the crime and after. Even though it has Ben Afleck, one should give the honors
to Rosamund Pike for an absorbing performance. Afleck too has some aces up his
sleeve, but Pike takes the cake. Tyler Perry comes across as the ultra-cool
litigator.
One thing that
elevates Gone Girl to the level of a mind-twisting thriller is the editing;
deft and absolutely controlled. The economy of sound in the entire movie is also
very much helpful to the overall mood. You might have seen many films where
there are clever and cruel manipulators who play others in masterly ways, but
Gone Girl deviates from all these films in the way that it ends, which
justifies the especially long epilogue. You won’t have a clue. I have a great
urge to add a final one line that would aptly sum up the content of Gone Girl,
but I’d hate to be a spoiler for you. Read the comments section for that one
line if you want to. Watch Gone Girl in theaters. It is undoubtedly one of the
best of this year and perhaps the last few years too.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned!
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