Horror for the Whole Family

David Fincher’s Gone Girl revels in the sickness of our culture by making it seem attractive.


Gone Girl is a big enough hit that think pieces on it have been popping up all over. So if you’re not already familiar with the plot of the movie, I’m about to spoil the whole thing for you.

It’s about a nauseating pair of affluent New Yorkers named Nick (Ben Affleck) and Amy (Rosamund Pike) who take turns giving he-said-she-said accounts of their whirlwind courtship and marriage, which is interrupted by her sudden disappearance on their fifth wedding anniversary. Has she been murdered? Is Nick her killer? Enquiring minds want to know.

Many of the think pieces inspired by the movie involve arguing about whether the movie is feminist in its stance, or favors a men’s movement, anti-feminist position. Where you come down largely depends on whether you embrace the point of view of the demonically evil, homicidal wife or the vapid, dopey, lying jerk of a husband who’s been set up by the wife to look like her murderer. Are you on Team Amy or Team Nick?

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