***1/2 (out of four)
Cunning as a raptor and nearly as fast, "Gone Girl" is an anesthetic-free dissection of human nature. It pulls the masks off its manipulative characters and reveals something bloody and ugly underneath. Again: This is not a sunny movie.
It is, however, very funny at times, in its own sick way. That's courtesy of Chicago-based writer Gillian Flynn, adapting her deservedly bestselling novel. If you haven't read it, do so.
The titular girl is Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike, finally given a big-time starring role), who has vanished on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary. Her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck), smiles at the wrong times and knows nothing of his wife's daily life in North Carthage, Mo., where the couple moved from New York two years prior to be closer to Nick's ailing mom. Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens of "Friday Night Lights") believes Nick; Boney's partner, officer Jim Gilpin (Patrick Fugit), sees a man foolishly trying and failing to be likable, claiming to have nothing to hide while constantly seeming off-balance.
(Fun fact: A smaller cop role is played by Lee Norris, who was Minkus on "Boy Meets World.")
Speaking of off-balance, "Gone Girl," which opens Friday and is a perfect fit for director David Fincher ("Seven,""The Social Network"), won't give some viewers what they expect. It's sinister with a low quantity of violence, a thriller only in the drama's diabolical genius. There's also a lot to process. "Gone Girl" doesn't pause for the audience to catch up, and it feels stuffed with plot details that don't always get the attention they need. The motivation for certain decisions and errors in judgment get swept up in two-and-a-half hours that fly by in an exquisite, vicious blur.
Fortunately, Affleck rises to a delicate role, and Pike masterfully hones the sharp edges of Amy's mind. When she says, "I prefer men who are funny, not 'funny,'" you can almost see the implied air quotes. Every casting choice pays off, actually, including Tyler Perry as a high-priced lawyer, Sela Ward (of that other "I didn't kill my wife" movie, "The Fugitive") as a TV host and model Emily "Blurred Lines" Ratajkowski as a hurricane of lips and youth and cleavage, giving Andie substance even though she worked better in the book.
Fincher gets points off for showing Nick and his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon), playing the actual game of "Life" when it's obvious who here treats life as a game with only one possible winner. But the movie's a bubbling, snarling tar pit of truth about liars who don't want to be lied to and both the stupid and the smart falling into their own obliviously-dug holes. The movie asks, can we know everything and nothing about someone? Can we influence circumstances seemingly beyond our control? Personally and professionally, the characters of "Gone Girl" constantly try to think their way out of confinement, trapped like a brain inside a skull.
Watch Matt review the week's big new movies Fridays at 11:30 a.m. on NBC.
mpais@tribune.com
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