Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike and Neil Patrick Harris in the David Fincher movie ‘Gone Girl’

A psychological thriller directed by David Fincher plants an intriguing movie premise. Add that Gillian Flynn wrote the screenplay for Gone Girl (2014) based on her own 2012 novel named Gone Girl adds another level of interest that brings us to this movie today. Add the really dark place this movie takes a marriage for the characters central to the story offers something dynamic.

(From left, Ben Affleck as Nick Dunne, Lisa Banes as Mary Elizabeth Elliott and David Clennon as Randall Elliott in the David Fincher movie Gone Girl).

The movie opens on the fifth anniversary of the marriage of Nick Dunne and Amy Elliott Dunne, portrayed respectively by Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike. Amy has disappeared. A series of children’s books by Mary Elizabeth and Randall Elliott, as portrayed by Lisa Banes and David Clennon, had been wildly popular, placing an immediate spotlight on what is quickly identified as a disappearance with significant media attention.

(From left, Rosamund Pike as Amy Elliott Dunne and Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings in the David Fincher movie Gone Girl).

Detective Rhonda Boney and her team, including officer James Gilpin are called in to investigate the Dunne’s Kansas City, Missouri residence in furtherance Amy’s disappearance. A string of incriminating evidence implicates Nick Dunne in the disappearance, with the suspicion that Amy’s disappearance may have escalated to death in a case of domestic violence. Besides the evidence at the family household, factors back to the family’s previous home in New York City, New York are revealed through flashbacks. Boney and Gilpin were portrayed by Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit.

(From left, Patrick Fugit as Officer James Gilpin and Kim Dickens as Detective Rhonda Boney in the David Fincher movie Gone Girl).

With the slow play of revelations against Nick Dunne, Amy’s husband turns to Tanner Bolt, his attorney, and Margo Dunn, his twin sister, for support. The continuing revelations of evidence that make Nick look guilty includes, for example, that Nick had an affair with a former student of his named Andie Fitzgerald. Tyler Perry, Carrie Coon and Emily Ratajkowski portrayed Tanner, Margo and Andie, respectively.

(From left, Tyler Perry as Tanner Bolt and Carrie Coon as Margo Dunne in the David Fincher movie Gone Girl).

The mounting pressure of the evidence feeds into the pressure applied in the media, including that of legal opinion host Ellen Abbott, to have Nick Dunne arrested and evidence of Amy Elliott Dunne’s death confirmed. The psychological component of that offers compelling sympathy for the viewpoint, while circumstances brought about in response to some of that media attention brings Desi Collings, a wealthy ex-boyfriend of Amy’s, into the picture. The beauty of this tension, with the dark statements about the Dunne marriage in particular, connected with me in ways that I mean not to undersell. Neil Patrick Harris and Missi Pyle portrayed Collings and Abbott, respectively.

(From left, Missi Pyle as Ellen Abbott and Emily Ratajkowski as Andie Fitzgerald in the David Fincher movie Gone Girl).

The achievement that Gillian Flynn as writer and David Fincher as director brought to this movie makes this something that I recommend. The film holds up to additional viewings and reflections after the fact, including with the deliberate discomfort that the film both raises and delivers upon. I give Gone Girl as directed by David Fincher 4.5-stars on a scale of one-to-five stars.

Matt – Wednesday, April 26, 2023

Timothy Olyphant, Walton Goggins and Season Two of ‘Justified’

We first introduced you to the FX television series Justified (2010-2015) with our look into the first season in July. Brad Paisley reprises the closing thought of You’ll Never Leave Harlan Alive in bringing the second 13-episode season of this addictive elegy of dysfunctional hillbillies feuding over crime, mining rights for the mountain, and a fleeting sense of a way of life in a community seemingly committed to a violent end. Throw in a sliding moral sense of interpersonal intimacy and trust that complicate definitions of family and friendship, and you have a sense for what season one and season two of Justified have had to offer.

(Erica Tazel as Rachel Brooks, Joelle Carter as Ava Crowder, Nick Searcy as Art Mullen, Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens, Walton Goggins as Boyd Crowder, Jacob Pitts as Tim Gutterson and Jere Burns as Wynn Duffy from the television series Justified).

Central to the dysfunctional and blurred lines of friendship and family remains the complicated relationship of almost brothers, almost friends, and almost always murky yet tenuous bond between Boyd Crowder and US Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens. A gunfight at the end of season one cemented the tenuous bond and truce of sorts, which in part contributed to the end of the love interest of Givens Ava Crowder. Ava accepts Boyd into her home, where a complicated family history from the first season of Justified transpired, and led to a complicated transition of feelings between Boyd and Ava explored through the show’s second season. Additionally explored was a backstory for US Deputy Marshal Rachel Brooks and her brother, as well as background introduced for Marshal Tim Gutterson.

(William Ragsdale as Gary Hawkins and Natalie Zea as Winona Hawkins in the television series Justified).

The complicated love triangle between Raylan, the glue to many story lines in Justified, explored the romantic ties and questionable entanglements with the law and each other for Gary Hawkins and Raylan’s ex-wife Winona Hawkins. Winona married Gary before the first season began, yet comes to a place where she questions the emotional priorities of Gary, as she had with Raylan before him. True to the series name, much of these questions are justified, as our the questions Winona also levels at herself through the season. Shenanigans ensue that touch characters Wynn Duffy and US Marshal Art Mullen. The nature of the enlightened perspectives of Duffy and Mullen, while expressed in different circles and levels of justification for sure, offer plenty of interesting fodder for those interested in considering the gray areas of personal ethics that Justified takes pleasure in questioning. Particularly for me, these last two questions seem particularly relevant heading into the next season, as is the question of where Raylan and the Hawkins’ are headed.

(Raymond J. Barry as Arlo Givens, left, and Linda Gehringer as Helen Givens in the television series Justified).

Further glue arises in the relationship of Raylan’s father and aunt, respectively Arlo Givens and Helen Givens. Wishing to hold back spoilers, I offer plenty in saying that either Arlo or Helen take a frightful turn during season two of Justified. The story of these two intersect with Boyd and Ava Crowder, whose story lines echo one another in enough ways to stir some questions.

(Jeremy Davies as Dickie Bennett, left, and Brad William Henke as Coover Bennett in the television series Justified).

The intersection of Boyd and Ava to Arlo and Helen brings season two of Justified to the central story line, which arguably should have come up earlier in the best way to pitch this season. First, who are the Bennetts? Second, what is their concern with Loretta McReady and her father? Finally, where does this leave us as far as the larger drama of the season?

(Joseph Lyle Taylor as Doyle Bennett, left, and Margo Martindale as Mags Bennett in the television series Justified).

Mags Bennett is the matriarch of the Bennett family. The Bennetts and the Givens family have some degree of a feud occurring that dates back generations in Harlan, Kentucky. Doyle Bennett is a police sheriff and arguably the most intelligent of the three sons introduced during the second season of Justified. The other two are Dickie Bennett and Coover Bennett, who lean more towards the criminal enterprise portion of the family business. Of the three sons, Mags favors one child over the other two. Dickie is the screw-up brother while Coover is the brother lacking common sense yet purported to have an aptitude for cultivating marijuana.

(Kaitlyn Dever as Loretta McCready in the television series Justified).

The story of the Bennetts overlaps with Loretta McCready, a 14-year-old girl who faces interpersonal criminal behavior at the hands of members of the Bennett clan. Through the season, Mags warms to Loretta as the daughter she never had. Whether fate plays a fickle or steady hand for the Bennetts regarding the McCready family and Loretta as Loretta struggles to understand the fate of her father through the course of the second season of Justified is plenty of reason to watch the series. I personally am impressed with the second season. My overall grade for season two of Justified is 4.25-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Saturday, September 14, 2019