GONE GIRL - 1 nomination

Actress in a Leading Role - Rosamund Pike

Gone Girl is an adaptation of the best-selling book by Gillian Flynn.  At the start of the film, we discover that Nick Dunne's (Ben Affleck) wife Amy is missing on the morning of their 5th wedding anniversary.  A media frenzy ensues and many clues point to Nick as a primary suspect.  Amy's journal is discovered during the investigation, and we begin to have insight into her view of the marriage, and we see a story that is played out with Nick's public popularity waxing and waning as each new detail comes to light.  The film has many unexpected twists and turns along the way, and to say more about it here would reveal far too much to make seeing it worthwhile.  I had read the book before I saw the movie, so part of my pleasure in seeing it in the theatre was watching others get the sensation of seeing a critical surprise about half way through the movie.

As usual, the film was not as good as the book, but it was a very very good adaptation.  Rosamund Pike plays Amy, the complex character whose parents wrote a series about her as a child entitled, "Amazing Amy."  We see how they laid all of their hopes and dreams on the fictional version of the person, and how that manifested into an adult bent on proving herself to be amazing in her own right. The character of Amy has so many faces and emotions which often present themselves literally back to back.  She can go from orgasmic to dead-eyed in a single moment.  From the time this film came out, Rosamund Pike was a contender for a Best Actress nomination.

Also notable was Kim Dickens (she plays one of the cops leading the investigation), to whom I was first introduced when she starred in a film over a decade ago called, "Things Behind The Sun."  Since then, she has taken on a series of challenging parts, and I think she deserves recognition for her work in this film, which was at once intense and kind and serious.

Carrie Coon was overlooked in the race for Supporting Actress, though the early buzz of the film was not enough to get her there in the end.  She represented the person we would all be if we learned that someone to whom we were close was accused of murder - a desire to stand by our family member combined with the very real worry that he is indeed guilty.

Gone Girl did very well in theatres and there's no mystery as to why.  It's a good old fashioned suspense film with lots of juicy surprises along the way.  Though it has only one nomination, it was certainly a contender for many categories.  With a good tub of popcorn, you'll have the best afternoon.

See the trailer here: