Æhr ^Iortlanb Observer
Page 8
November 26, 2014
M
C
imii uimiini
‘ Gone Girl ’
Dreadfully
Disappoints
O pinionated
J udge ...
s
CAROL
JO I I D K A .M M Y
Rosamund Pike and Ben
Afflick star in the new movie
thriller1 Gone Girl. ’
B I
nering a lot of acclaim that I don't
think it deserves. So, let's talk about
"Gone Girl."
Fair warning, this review will con
tain spoilers. If you want to judge
this film yourself and want the op
portunity to be surprised by it, post
pone reading this. But I hope you
by D arleen O rtega
will read it.
Writing film criticism is a labor of
Let me start by saying I think this
love for me, with the primary objec film fails on its own terms. It is sup
tive of appreciating and bringing posed to be a suspenseful psycho
attention to films that really deserve logical thriller, and has been lauded
an audience. But rarely, I feel the as a masterful example of one. I find
need to call out a film that is particu that baffling. I saw everything com
larly terrible, especially if it is gar ing, except the ending — and I sus-
C H R IS T A 4 4
20 th C entury F ox
I
Film short on
believability and
promotes
stereotypes
IX
PHOTO COURTESY
A W A RD S-
PRODUCTION OF A PLAY
ENSEMBLE
DIRECTOR
5 0 3 .4 8 8 .5 8 2 2
P O R T L A N D P L A Y H O U S E .O R G
pect that is because I didn't think
even this dreadful film would stoop
so low as to end the way it did. The
plotting seemed to me clunky and
obvious. I didn't believe a second of
it.
That also goes for the psycho
logical aspects of the film. The story
involves a really bad -- that is to say,
murderous — marriage between a
woman, Amy (played by Rosamund
Pike) who is meant to be seriously
disturbed (perhaps a psychopath),
and a man, Nick (played by Ben
Affleck), who does bad things but is
not psychologically disturbed. You
know, more of a movie Everyman.
As someone whose life has in
cluded more than the usual number
o f encounters with people with per
sonality disorders and who some
times finds stories about destruc
tive and disturbed people interest
ing and enlightening, I did not find
Amy's behavior and psychology to
be remotely believable. I am curious
about what anyone with psycho
logical training would say, but I
thought her motivations and ac
tions made no sense even for some
one who is disturbed. For example,
why the attraction to Nick? He is
handsome, yes, but with her looks
and money she can get any number
of handsome men. He is sort of a
lunkhead, and not her intellectual
equal. He is more lowbrow than she
fancies herself to be. Why the ob-
continued
'y f
on page 15