Gone Girl: The Film

Oh man oh man oh man.

After explaining the plot of this film to two shopkeepers after watching the film, they were throwing their heads back and holding hands to their forehead and making sounds of such expression that I may as well have been telling them... well... right now I can't think of many things more interesting than the plot to Gone Girl.

I don't want to get too into the storyline as I feel the events are better left unexplained but I think the effect of this engaging story about a mysterious husband, and his wife that goes missing can be explained best by the comments made by those around me in the sold out Westgarth cinema.

At the close of the film I heard the man next to us whisper an "Oh my shit" followed by the older woman behind us remark to a friend that "if anything is going to put you off marriage, that'll do it"...

It may seem like I am exaggerating and I'll admit, emotion probably has the better of me right now, but Gone Girl is just one of those films that really grabs you emotionally and has you absolutely reeling. As I had read the book and was waiting anxiously for the film release there was a lot of possibility for it to underwhelm me (as I have found with movie interpretations such as 'The Book Thief' which is one of my favourite books, but a movie I don't rate highly at all) but I have made the call that to me, the film was better than the book.

As always, the book contains extra details that were glazed over in the film and reading the book definitely gave me more background but I feel like as a stand alone movie it would still be very good -if not better as you would not know what was coming in the way I did. The fact that the author, Gillian Flynn was also the script writer for the movie ensured that every aspect of the film was true to the book and allowed for a continuity of character in conversations that were unique to the film. This storyline has made me want to delve deeper into a genre I rarely read or watch (thriller) as it had a lot of those crime mystery aspects but also the familiar components that analyse love, characters and human nature which I enjoy.

But of course the only way you'll find out if it ticks all the boxes for you as it did for me is to get buy a ticket at your nearest cinema -and maybe bring a stress ball.

-B

*Mosaik does not take credit for any images used in this article