Gone Girl (David Fincher, 2014)

Faithfully based on Gillian Flynn's best-selling novel, Gone Girl follows the marriage of Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike (both great choices for once), writers who moved reluctantly to a small Missouri town. The structure both rewinds to the start of their relationship from the morning that she goes missing and from then on relates the past five years through her diary entries, and continues the present where he is accused of her murder as the main storyline. Until...we find that these are unreliable narrators, and then things get rather more complex.
For once a film worthy of its protracted running length, it's edge-of-the-seat stuff with wholly unexpected twists, which is a rarity in itself these days in Hollywood. It also contains considerably more substance, with its searing attack on the media circus that surrounds these events and the sheep-like way people are led one way and another by the reportage, than most films that purport to be serious critiques of populism. The charge made against it by some parties that the film doesn't also deal in an even-handed way with issues like false rape allegations is irrelevant: this is still fiction, not social activism.
Finally, Fincher has come up with something that almost matches the quality of Fight Club, even if it's only an efficient and nuanced thriller instead of anything iconic. It only took him 15 years to do so; let's hope that doesn't set a precedent.

7/10