Movie Review: Gone Girl

“What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other?”

If you have a partner, have you ever thought of these questions? If you do, do you have any answers to any of these? In fact, these questions were asked twice by Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), once at the beginning of the movie, and once again at the end. But despite his “double identity” as both the victimizer and the victim, I don’t think he had the puzzle figured out at all – because he never knew that he was the source of everything, the seed of the tragedy.

Five years into their marriage, the former New York-based writers Amy (Rosamund Pike) and Nick were festering in Missouri after being hit by the cruel waves of economic recession, redundancy and the sickness of Nick’s mother. The initial romance, sweetness and attraction had been worn out by distrust, suspicion and, Nick’s infidelity. Yes, infidelity, the most sinful of all sins in the book of marriage’s vices – one day when Amy was on the street, she saw her husband and his mistress, kissing, hugging, with Nick doing all those little sweet traits that should only belong to her to the other woman. This unleashed the darkest thoughts of a typical “Type A” person: catastrophe, cruelty, and revenge. We didn’t know how and where did Nick hooked up with the twenty-something sexy student in the first place – it might be OKCupid, Bazoocam or even Snapchat – but that didn’t really matter, because what awaited the betrayer was a severe punishment from the icy and villainous goddess whom he had sworn a vow to. She framed a perfect disappearance, a nearly perfect crime scene in their house, and a well-planned fake pregnancy to draw all public attention and hatred towards the man. She manipulated everything as she knew that her fame as the writer of the popular “Amazing Amy” book series would be handy enough. And there she was, driving to a remote area on her own, while her husband was suffering from her vengeance and being accused as the ruthless murderer of his “pregnant” wife…

You might wonder, did the punishment gone too far? Did a disloyal husband have to be suffocated by the harsh accusations from the neighborhood, the media and even the entire America? Well I couldn’t help but believe that was, though a bit out of control, justice be done. I am a woman, and I have no sympathy towards an infidel guy, especially a guy who could even have sex with his mistress in his sister’s house after his wife had gone missing. As what we know from the Game of Thrones, “There is a beast in every man (and woman) and it stirs when you put a sword in his (or her) hand.” If you’re scared, you might want to give yourself and your partner a Type A Personality Test before you plan to tie the knot. And don’t ever attempt to go infidel.

By Jessica Olsen