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I went to see Gone Girl this weekend, spurred by reports from several Lovefraud readers that the film reminded them of the psychopaths in their lives.
In my opinion, the story was a realistic portrayal of psychopathic behavior until it descended into psychopathic cliché.
Here’s the official synopsis on GoneGirlMovie.com:
GONE GIRL — directed by David Fincher and based upon the global bestseller by Gillian Flynn — unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage. On the occasion of his fifth wedding anniversary, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) reports that his beautiful wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike), has gone missing. Under pressure from the police and a growing media frenzy, Nick’s portrait of a blissful union begins to crumble. Soon his lies, deceits and strange behavior have everyone asking the same dark question: Did Nick Dunne kill his wife?
I’m sure the marketers said Gone Girl “unearths the secrets at the heart of a modern marriage” to make the movie appeal to a wide audience. Because if they said the film “reveals the treachery of marriage to a psychopath,” people might be afraid to watch it.
Forgive me if I’m a bit vague in how I write about Gone Girl, but I don’t want to fill this post with spoilers for all of you who haven’t seen the movie yet.
From a purely entertainment perspective, the movie is good. It moved along quickly, held my interest, told a compelling story until the action just went way over the top.
I really liked the way the characters were portrayed. The attitude of the psychopath was absolutely on the money, and the reactions of the people around the psychopath were realistic.
This psychopath charmed, was temporarily satisfied, then plotted and schemed. The movie did a good job of illustrating the motivations and behavior of a highly disordered individual.
Gone Girl could have been a cautionary tale about the human predators who live among us. But then, about 80% of the way through the movie, there’s a plot twist that is just too messy, and I mean that literally. A real psychopath, especially one so smart and calculating, would have accomplished the objective without it looking like a horror movie.
At that point, the plausibility and realism were lost.
Even casual moviegoers start questioning the storyline. Why did they do this? Why didn’t they do that?
The vibe in the movie theater as Gone Girl came to an end was that it was typical Hollywood fare dramatic, shocking fiction. I doubt anyone believed that such a story could really happen.
Which is too bad, because much of what the movie portrayed could really happen to someone unlucky enough to tangle with a highly disordered psychopath.
The charm, manipulation, deceit, sense of entitlement, calculated plotting and chameleon-like ability to change personas that are depicted in Gone Girl are absolutely realistic. If the story were toned down just a little bit, you could send your families and friends to the movie so they could learn what you’ve been dealing with.
I can relate so much to Ben Affleck’s character with the exception that I was entirely faithful to my spouse. Ironically, I saw this movie just as his mask came off and he was ready to discard me. Which the movie doesn’t portray. What it does well, is that she needed children to maintain her control of him. That is where I was and still am today. He threatened if I followed through with my protective order, I’d never see my children again! I overcame my fear, thinking it was only intimidation to frighten me. For the last nine months, I get to see them 4 hours a week at most. They are frightened to death, and so am I, but like the lady in the movie, my husband had planned his setup for years in case I got brave!!
WOW, this movie was on the FX channel yesterday. So incredibly scary that we all survived a sociopaths hell. I’m still shaking my head at the horror that my ex & this sociopath character portrayed as the level of cunningness was very similar.
What stood out the most is the coldness of the character (sociopath) in this movie. This was my ex h many times during the marriage towards me, especially when I filled for divorce. The evilness at that point escalated and the manipulation become completely apparent to me yet everyone in the court house were oblivious to his manipulation and utter coldness. Very strange how they just took his word so easily because when I first met him my first impression was he was a “tornado” and second impression meeting him was he was “crazy”. Now I cant even look at a picture of him without seeing pure pure evilness in his eyes & face.
I guess the court just saw that he dressed in a jacket & tie and that was enough control everyone in the court house because when you read his court documents you could read his evil mindset…even my lawyer said he sounded like an “asshole”.
I think the ending of this movie was just a set up for a sequel and that was why they were setting the stage for round two of the sociopaths (really a psychopath) craziness.
Just for curiosity I went to the “Gone Girl Movie” Facebook page, and once again there were many people that posted who could not spot the sociopaths coldness & evilness in this movie. (Spoiler alert) Some even posting that “the cheating partner” was the reason for all the chaos. Clearly they are not educated like all of us in the beginning even though the vicim in this movie makes a point in the bathroom to say that they were married to a “psychopath”.
Beware this movie will most likely trigger you for me it sent chills up my spin…which I think is a good thing that my gut instinct senses have returned & I can see & feel evilness which became numb during my marriage because I was so brain washed & gas lighted by my ex h a sociopath.
Thanks Donna for taking the time to post this post.