Gone Girl

Fincher elevates an airport bestseller to the year’s creepiest thriller.

Master director David Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, The Social Network) tackles Gillian Flynn’s popular page-turner and you get what you’d expect — a masterfully produced film that is thrilling and entertaining but not too important or thought provoking.

The film explores the media’s obsession with good families gone bad (yawn) and asks the question, “do we really know our loved ones?” (interesting). More effectively, it explores a simpler question: “Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?” (now you got me).

The cast is great. Mr. Affleck shows an emotionally exposed side we rarely see…and yes, his penis. Rosumund Pike (An Education, Pride and Prejudice) has her breakout role. And Emily Ratajkowski (Blurred Lines video) shows us that she should just dance.

The book and the movie both suffer from an ending that’s hardly satisfying, but getting there is the thrill of Gone Girl; I enjoyed both.

Simply put: You’ll be on the edge of your seat for two and a half hours. You’ll discuss it for the next hour. You’ll forget it by next week.

Award potential: It will be discussed in the fall as an Oscar contender, but ultimately it’s just a well-crafted thriller and will be mostly forgotten by Academy Award time.

The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.