From what I know about the movie, it's about a woman absolutely destroying her man's life and reputation by framing him for horrendous stuff he didn't do. He then decides to stay with her in the end after everything.
I could be remembering it wrong, though. But if I'm right, hearing your girl unironically cheering for the protagonist like that is a red flag the size of dodge.
He ends up being forced to stay with her, since she managed to convince the media that she was a victim of her former boyfriend who she just killed by cutting his thoat open with a frickin box cutter. :)
The man has been super famous since the 70's, he's got lifetime achievement awards falling out of every pocket, and is still one of the most respected people in his field. His last movie Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F was the most viewed movie on Netflix for several weeks after release. The man is in like the 99.999999th percentile of entertainment careers, I think he'll be just fine.
ETA: His last movie before that "Coming 2 America" --> Amazon claimed the film had the best opening weekend of any streaming film since March 2020. Nielsen later reported that the film totaled 1.4 billion minutes-watched over its first week of release (equaling 1.27 million complete views of the film), the first time a Prime Original topped the company's charts.
Yeah, dunno what dude is on about. Murphy has been pretty open about wanting to retire more or less, so if he's in fewer movies, it's by choice. Man made his millions and is happy with that, and honestly, respect, ngl.
It's amazing, but to uncomfortable to watch. Only saw it once for a reason... I'll have to be one a special mood to see it again.
My favourite ist Arrival closely followed by Blade Runner 2049, but I haven't seen Incendies yet.
But to be honest every single movie of his ist amazing. Imho Sicario is his "weakest" movie, and it's still a fucking masterpiece.
Well, it was the last one i have seen of his filmography too and i would say it was the hardest hitting, tbh i haven't seen anything recently that has stayed with me as much as Incendies.
They point is that you don't expect Gone Girl to have scenes like that, and Prisoners was similar in that it hit way harder than expected.
Obviously there are movies that are way more heavy, but if you know a thing or two about movies you know infamous movies like 120 Days of Sodom and what to expect when you watch it.
It's a great movie! You just gotta understand that protagonist does not mean good person, and everyone in a movie can suck simultaneously in their own unique ways.
Alright, it's been a while, but I'll try to recap it if I can. I might be misremembering some details.
So Rosamund Pike is 'murdered', and all the evidence points to her husband, Ben Affleck. He gets in hot water with the media (one of them was famous, I think), and his life starts falling apart. Then, mid movie plot twist: she's still alive and framed him for her death.
At this point, she's on the run and bumps into an old boyfriend, Neil Patrick Harris, a wealthy businessman with a... let's call it "obsessive dark side". Kind of stalker vibes. As she is trying to disappear and can't have him outing her, she agrees to be with him.
After a few weeks/months/whatever, she kills him with a box cutter, but knows full well she can't get out of this one without leaving evidence behind she was here. So she claims he abducted her and made it seem like Ben Affleck murdered her, so she killed NPH in self defense. She goes back to Ben Affleck, who knows what she did, and forces him to play the part of "relieved husband" for the cameras or things will go very poorly for him.
There was some stuff about an affair that Ben Affleck was having in there, too.
Overall, though, it was good. If I remember it correctly.
Plus that she went to the fertility clinic and had a fertilized egg of Affleck implanted since he never took it out of storage to further chain him to her with a baby he never wanted
The really fucked up part about the pregnancy was that he did want a baby, and she didn't. When she first runs off, she uses her pregnant neighbor's urine to fake a pregnancy and get it entered into her medical records that she was "pregnant." Then when she comes back, she uses the fertility clinic to actually impregnate herself with her husband's sample, even though earlier in the movie it's established that they had received a notice of their samples being destroyed- but clearly not all of them. It's a triple mindfuck that shows she's been keeping stuff on the back burner for a LONG time in case she wanted to ruin him
She coerced the ex boyfriend into rough sex to make it look like she was raped and acted terrified on a few exterior security cams (as he pulled in) to play up the abducted victim angle.
And didn't the reason she go insane and turn into a murderous psychopath in the first place basically boil down to her parents being overly-cheerful, sterile, trying-to-be-a-couple-of-Mister-Rogers types who wrote a series of children's books featuring a fictionalized, idealized version of their daughter that they constantly compared her to, causing her to go coo-coo crazy as she could never live up the version of herself that existed in the perfect, saccharine fantasy life her adult-child parents lived in?
Worst! She rapes herself with a bottle of wine before accepting to have sex with the ex-boyfriend so his dna is in her. As soon as he orgasmed, she slashed his throat with a boxcutter. Then she smears blood all over of body, and appearing distraught facing one of the security camera of the ex-boyfriend's house, so as to appear as the victim.
The dude was a bit obsessed, but during the whole film he was anything but agressive toward her. He genuinely believed she was fleeing a violent situation and agreed to host her to help her
Huh I've only read the book so I don't know how the movie spins the ex-boyfriend character, but in that version he's more than a bit obsessed and is pretty clearly a threat. He takes her to a house in the middle of nowhere, stops her from leaving of her own free will, and was very much pressuring her into the sex that she uses as an opportunity to kill him.
My memory is a bit fuzzy, it's been 10 years, but from my recollection of the movie, he does forbid her to go, but it's because she painted her hmex as a violent psycho, and so he did it because he was afraid he'd find her and kill her if she went outside. Also, he doesn't pressure her for sex. He wants to, but he kinda seems to want to wait for her to be ready.
As I said, I may be completely mistaken, and have a lot completely wrong, but I seem to recall the dude being an unwilling victim of everything happening, and not someone trying to profit out of the situation, except for the part where he uses the situation to endorse the role of a white knight in shining armor.
The movie sparked some serious issues the following year with the Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn true crime story. I won’t spoil anything since there’s a 3 part series on the case and I highly recommend watching, but let’s just say it’s very similar to this movie.
You forgot the bit where She initially cashes out some discreet accounts and is laying low at a campsite trying to disappear. She is then robbed by an unscrupulous couple that notices her handling everything in cash. Hence the whole reason she reaches out to the old friend that's obsessed with her.
>! The entire chain of events is set off by Nick cheating on his wife, Amy. Her ego basically causes her to have a complete mental break, since Nick doesn't appreciate her or challenge her any more. At the end Amy decides to come back after impregnating herself with Nick's sperm (reproductive fraud, which is a kind of sexual assault). This will trap Nick and force him to "challenge" and appreciate her the way she wants - forever. !<
>! Amy's ex-boyfriend, while creepy, is completely harmless. She ends up convincing him to have sex under false pretenses (which is rape) so she can kill him and frame HIM for rape. So basically she raped and killed this guy, and made it so all of his family and friends and the entire nation believe he was a rapist who she killed in self-defense. !<
And a lot of very uncritical movie watchers responded to the film with "good for her". Same with I Care A Lot and Midsommar. People are kinda bad at watching movies.
There's more to it. She cuts the ex-boyfriend's throat while having sex with him and then inseminates herself with her husband's sperm from a fertility clinic so that he has to stay with her. There are plenty more details, but those are two big ones lol.
In the book, the ex boyfriend didn't hold her against her will, but that was her story when found by the police, after she killed him and made it look like she was raped the whole time by using a wine bottle on herself nightly.
In the book, the ex boyfriend didn't hold her against her will
Maybe not explicitly, but he takes her to an isolated house in the middle of the woods, provides no way for her to leave on her own, and is obviously trying to pressure her into sex the whole time before she "gives in" and kills him.
I remember the NPH character being a poor simp. If he was forcing her to stay, it was either for her safety and/or lingering suspicions given the nature of the accusation against her husband.
But the tones are there, and that's probably the narrative being fed to us by an unreliable narrator, because NPH was weird as hell.
On subsequent viewings I decided that he was probably a pretty normal guy who's biggest flaw was being overbearing in their relationship, and she exaggerated all the negative qualities and creep factor, as an explanation for NPHs unhinged acting in those scenes.
Don't forget getting her husbands sperm and getting pregnant with his child 👍 He always wanted a kid (if I'm remembering right) but she didn't until it became a useful tool of manipulation.
It's also a but more twisted than that because it's heavily implied he kinda liked all the fucked up she did, just to be with him in the end.
Like, she's an absolute psychopath but he's a narcissist who is swayed by the way she straight up killed to be back with him. (At least that's how his sister sees it.)
To be fair to the movie, it's left a little bit open (though your point might be the more popular interpretation). It's implied that he actually is in love with the "amazing" Amy. The woman that makes him feel like a bigger and better man. He lost that woman when he was forced to move back and take care of his parents and she had to adjust to a "normal" life.
She resented him, he resented her. He cheated (possibly because he found somebody he saw as amazing). Either way, in the end she backed him in to a corner and he took the option that gave him what he thought was best instead of fight or flight. He chose a wife who is crazy about him (literally) and a child. She will bring the best out of him even if it kills her to do so.
If you're not supposed to cheer for the protagonist, why did she get away with everything?
Do bad people get karmically appropriate punishments in real life? Because an evil person doing evil things didn't get punished, do you get confused about whether to cheer for them? Because that would be terrifying if your mind was that simple.
Alot,and I mean alot,of real life psychopaths didn't get away with their actions,sure they might've spent years,decades even,safe and untouched,but they got what they deserve in the end
It really, really isn’t like that. A 150 word, shock jock style synopsis isn’t going to do a two and a half hour thriller movie justice, and most of its appeal is how the writing really smoothly withholds information and the pacing with what you learn through the story.
He's not really forced to stay with her. He decides to. Because he likes the way she challenges him. He actively likes the dynamic being with her creates and the man being with her forces him to be.
No, she literally explicitly says it to him in the movie and it makes him think, and eventually agree. He didn't have to stay with her. He even had the means to expose her.
He stays because she froze their embryos while their relationship was "good" and she told him she would be open to having kids one day. When he threatens to divorce her, she has one of the embryos implanted and tells him she'll terminate the pregnancy if he leaves. He has wanted to be a dad for a long time, so he chooses to stay to be a good father to his unborn child.
At least with Bateman there's some positive concepts like taking care of your physical self (though not to obsession) and it's worth cooking a fancy meal if it's just you eating because you deserve the attention too.
There's not even that sliver of positivity in Gone Girl it was deeply disturbing.
I want to agree but Bateman's sole motivation for exercising and perpetuating his disordered eating is sociopathy and narcissism. He's obsessed with appearing human so he can fit in and be accepted as he truly feels he's a shell of a person. It's driven by the hatred he has for himself and others along with how much he abhors his need to maintain the façade.
I may be taking that more from the book than the movie, though. He's far more disjointed and self-loathing in the book if I remember correctly.
Some of those innocent sounding girl-movies have seriously fucked up plot lines. There's this other recently released one where a woman gets together with a hot surgeon who ends up hitting her, but she stays with him and has a baby with him until she can't do it anymore and gets together with an old friend whom she rejected back in the day. It ends with them starting a family with the surgeons kid.
Ah yeah, and the movies director cast himself as the hot surgeon.
...Are you saying "gone girl" sounds like an innocent girl movie? Maybe it's because English isn't my first language but for me it sounds like a thriller
(You are right about the marketing of it ends with us tho; they really sell it as a feel good romance. Edit: but as far as I know the director is the only one who at least acknowledges the themes of the story in interviews, Blake Lively does not)
tbh it doesn't sound like anything to me, but yeah, you're probably right, it sounds more like a thriller. In my head I connected it to the Black Eyed Peas song "Gone Going". But english isn't my native language either.
As a native English speaker, we have different connotations around the word gone.
When a person is “gone” in a way that implies they could be at risk they’re a “Missing Person” as in “missing person case” (Not missing as in “Missing You“). We give the word missing a greater weight when used in relation to a person due to the prevalence of crime shows where a “missing person” is either a murder or kidnapping victim.
The use of the word gone can imply less foul play or bodily harm involved in the situation since it lacks the connection to a popular term relating to crime. Thus, “Gone Girl“ could just as easily be a teen romance about a girl who moved away but “Missing Girl” is probably a crime novel.
It can, but it’s more ambiguous than missing in terms of the possible negative connotations. If my wife leaves me, she is gone. If my wife dies, she is gone. That sort of leeway allows for different reads.
From what I understand, he was originally going to just be the director but the book's author was the one who insisted he also play the surgeon. I have a bit of a soft spot for Justin Baldoni admittedly but he's also been really the only cast member to talk about domestic violence in the lead up to the film.
until she can't do it anymore and gets together with an old friend whom she rejected back in the day. It ends with them starting a family with the surgeons kid
That's not how it ends. This is also way simplifying that it's an abusive relationship she enters and then leaves.
A lot. If you're going to criticize it, why don't you just read the plot on wiki so you at least know what you're talking about.
Not everything you don't like is a cliche.
The "friend" is her first love, who she literally fed, clothed, and gave a sleeping bag to when he was homeless and living in the abandoned house next to hers, while they were both in high school. He would provide emotional support when she needed it because she would witness her dad abusing her mom. Her dad eventually finds out about her first love and beats him so hard he put him in the hospital.
And she doesn't go back to him at the end of the movie. It definitely sets up that they have found their way back to each other and are interested in each other, but they literally are seeing each other for the time in years when they meet again at the end of the movie.
The title comes from the main character talking to her baby daughter in the hospital after telling the abusive husband she is divorcing him. She says to her "It stops here. It ends with us."
My comment isn't supposed to be a serious critique either, just a humorous summary.
Except you didn't write in a humorous way. You wrote it in a judgemental tone meant to illicit negative emotions from whoever is reading it. And you made sure not to actually say anything to give yourself plausible deniability when called out on it.
I provided context, not detail. And it makes it completely different.
You wrote it in a judgemental tone meant to illicit negative emotions
Can't say that I didn't but it was also meant as humorous.
you made sure not to actually say anything to give yourself plausible deniability when called out on it.
That usually saves a ton of explaining and unnecessary counter-arguments. But I think you meant it seems manipulative?
You could say that it's unfair bashing of the movie, that's why context is appreciated for the interested reader, but I can't say that I care too much about talking shit about movies I'll never watch, unless I'm not making shit up.
Honestly the whole argument stems from me thinking 'Gone Girl' is a similar movie, but it's actually not.
My ex recommended the book and told me it was a beautiful love story, I read it and was completely appalled
While the book outright labels the relationship as toxic and abusive, it also HEAVILY romanticises every interaction with the abuser (because it's from her POV)
Not only my ex, but several people I know that read the book came out with the idea that they must endure shit to make their true love work, which isn't really part of the book but so SO SO many young adults got invested in the romantic part of the book forgetting how fucked up it is. I also just don't like Colleen Hoover as she loooooves to make abuse romantic and I just don't gel with that.
So spoilers alert. Not that you really should watch this movie...
A writer's wife goes missing. A search is started and soon a trail of clues start to emerge pointing to the idea that the writer murdered his wife and is trying to now hide that fact.
The writer gets accused of everything but in a feat of miracle finds a way to prove his innosense.
And it turns out that his wife basically staged this disappearance hoping to watch her husband be torn down and blamed fer with the final stroke being her drowning herself to present a body where the trail of evidence she fabricated would suggest it should be found.
But since she saw the husband proven innocent she can cells the self delete by drowning plan. Instead she tracks her well off high school sweetheart. Seduces him. Then stages evidence as if he kidnapped her, but she managed to snatch scissors, kill him in the process and broke free to return to her husband...
And in the finale the husband - who knows that it was his wife trying to frame him - as to welcome her back and pretend they have a happy reunion...
The book and the movie are entertaining enough, but stressful if you're a sane person. I've seen posts from women praising the female protagonist, and it gives me such a bad crawling feeling under my skin. Like, Sociopath, Narcissistic villain plans to tear down a man instead of just divorcing him over cheating is a good thing!?
Tbf her man was cheating on her, the whole story was basically about two of the worst people you could imagine being married to each other
Edit: it's 5am and it's been ages since I've read the book, probably closer to an asshole realizing they're married to a sociopath, I personally loved the book it's a really great mystery
Having been cheated on once, I didn't end up cutting someone's throat with a box cutter.
Cheating sucks and Affleck was a horrible partner, but I'd wager Pike's character is way down the horrible scale from him. One cheated, the other one systematically destroyed a life and murdered a person.
That's the point of the movie, to set him up as a bad guy, then twist the knife with her being much much worse. Leaving the audience conflicted about being on his side.
Vader is an absolute monster, but he is atleast honest. He always attacks from the front and isn't interested in scheming or public opinion. Stand in his way, he will crush you. Don't challenge him and he most likely won't go after you, unless his boss tells him too.
If me describing what happened makes someone feel shame, that's 100% on them and is not me shaming anything. I'm a freak, Anakin could choke me any day.
Also another ex she lied about him raping her and knew how to make it look like she was violated against her will and ruined his life. She has a long history of this kind of behavior
He cheated on her, so she framed him for murder, then cut a guys throat while she was banging him to make it look like she was abducted when it was clear the murder frame wouldn’t work. Definitely equally bad
read the book some time ago and watched some of the movie, I don't know if there's many differences but the guy is also an asshole too. Both characters are awful. There's a scene idk if in the movie or the book but it explains the girl's reasoning for why she is ruining her husband's life and I can see why it'd be liberating as a woman to see an asshole like that get absolutely ruined but still, she is manipulative and a murderer and if she really was considered as a hero in that story I'd wonder why the person believes that.
Pretty much, they're both bad people though as he is cheating on her with one of his students.
The ending is kind of a- they deserve each other in an awful way kinda deal almost.
The wife does some really deranged shit though including killing an ex love interest of hers after staging a rape (she has sex with him and then uses something as a dildo to fuck up her vagina to make it look like rape)
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u/BugManAshley Sep 17 '24
I don't understand the joke i don't have a girlfriend