Gone Girl ****

Dir: David Fincher
Starring: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris, Tyler Perry,
Carrie Coon, Kim Dickens,
Missi Pyle

David Fincher’s very smart adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s novel (written for the screen by the author herself) is not just a police procedural. Yes, it follows the case of a housewife who disappears (has she been kidnapped or has she been murdered?) from her home on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary but it is also a psychological thriller with a plot twist that should have you sitting up straight in your seat about an hour into the movie - leaving another 90 minutes still to go. Those 90 minutes bring even more surprises, including a shocking, gory scene that has Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross eerie score rising to a crescendo in the background.

But there’s even more to the movie. It also homes in on the potential minefields that often lie under the surface in marital relationships and it does so with sharp, black, cruel humour. And the note on which the movie ends is the single most terrifying scene of the year.

Fincher (and Flynn) are superbly supported by the cast. Affleck hits all the right notes with his alternately affable and smug and self-serving Nick Dunne. Rosamund Pike is possibly even better as Amy, the sexy and cool but neglected wife. She also has many layers to her, as we eventually discover. The support actors are just as effective, including Tyler Perry as Nick’s superstar lawyer, Carrie Coon as Nick’s supportive twin sister, Kim Dickens as the lead detective on the case and Neil Patrick Harris as Amy’s high school boyfriend who may still be carrying a torch for her but has something off about him.

The movie will keep you guessing and thinking throughout and may leave you disturbed.

Cut to chase: Superb thriller which may also be the scariest movie of the year