"Gone Girl" Goes To The Movies, Girls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                         Let's have a coffee klatch, girls, because I have a few things to say about the movie version of "Gone Girl," which Monsieur and I both saw yesterday.

                         First, it  works.  Second, without revealing too much, Amy Elliot Dunn, brilliantly played by Rosamund Pike, is destined to become film's most hated female character, since Glenn Close played Alex Forrest, in "Fatal Attraction," back in 1987.  Which was 27 years ago, dolls!!!!!!!!!

                           Actually, the big plot device it has going for it, which works well on film, but I thought worked better on the printed page, owes a lot going all the way back to Vera Caspary, Gene Tierney, and "Laura."  In "Laura," made in 1944, the body of a murdered woman is found in Laura's apartment.  Laura is dead--or is she?  In "Gone Girl," 70 years later, Amy Elliot Dunn goes missing. Or does she?

                           The title is ambiguous, referring to Amy's disappearance, the exploitation of her identity by her parents, (more on that later) and her questionable mental state.

                            David Fincher does it again.  The cast is superb.  Ben Affleck, Lisa Banes--everyone!!!!!!!  I have wanted to work with David for ages, but he never calls me. That scene in the Brooklyn bar, where Nick talks to one of Amy's exes????????  I could have done that scene!!!!!!!!!!!!

                              I will not comment on the ending, unless some of my girls comment on here. We can get into that, then.  What I will say though is one set of villains the film overlooks are Amy's parents.  Like the Hudsons, in ;'Baby Jane,' they exploited their daughter; not by making her a performer, but by making her the living embodiment of a female children's book character, Amazing Amy, who doesn't really exist, but everyone thinks Amy is, and, for all her accomplishments, the parents, to rake in the money, always ante up the fictional Amy's accomplishments as superior to their own daughter, giving the real Amy someone she feels has to compete with, but can't because she isn't real.  That has to do a number on one's head, so Amy's parents get some blame for sending her down that pathological path.  I wish the film had examined more of this.

                                It is long, at 149 minutes, but, like the book, is totally engrossing.  Only my bladder had issues!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                 My girls know what to avoid.  But straight guys seeing "Gone Girl," beware--there are more Amys out there than you realize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

                                  Be careful, dears, or, before you know it, you will be GONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!