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Three Reasons to Worry About 'Gone Girl'
By Anne Thompson | Thompson on HollywoodAfter the deluge of coverage of the New York Film Festival opening night movie, what's left to say? Well, I watched the movie with considerable pleasure, followed by a press conference which was fascinating to parse and later, the fete at old fest standby Tavern on the Green.
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Author Flynn has brilliantly streamlined and punched up the storyline. It works--even at two and a half hours. At the press conference she admitted that when she knew that the movie had sold to New Regency/Fox, she didn't want anyone else to adapt it and fought for the gig. When she landed it, she was both thrilled and terrified. When Fincher came on board, he worked to keep "the weird nuances intact."
Fincher was being typically controlling during the press conference, exhorting the press to hide "Gone Girl" plot spoilers-- while the bestseller is still flying off bookshelves-- and refusing to allow anyone to record the NYFF press conference.
At Tavern on the Green, Affleck admitted that yes, that's his real naked body in the shower scene, bulked up to play Batman, he told us at the party. He enjoyed ribbing Fincher at the press conference, he admitted--he found out during the shoot that you could give him shit, he said--as long as it was about the work, reminded Pike. After Affleck wraps playing Batman in November, he'll prep for an east coast summer start on his next Dennis Lehane adaptation "Live By Night" (produced by Jennifer Todd), in which he's set to star with Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana and Sienna Miller.
I mingled with the likes of Darren Aronofsky (sans scarf, heading to Mill Valley to hawk the VFX pleasures of "Noah"), Edward Norton (who said he never had more fun than on the set of "Birdman"), the director of the festival's secret screening, "While We Were Young," Noah Baumbach, with Greta Gerwig, Twentieth Century Fox execs Jim Gianopulos and Emma Watts, and "Foxcatcher" director Bennett Miller and producer Jon Kilik.
At the party many people debated the movie's Oscar chances. At this stage, anyone who knows that answer is premature (one New York online columnist dismissed it as "too genre"). That's exactly the poison meme that rival Oscar hopefuls want to spread. (Another one making the rounds: Angelina Jolie's "Unbroken" is "too violent.") That's why I wait to see films before making judgments.
As I waited with one Fox marketing executive at Tavern on the Green for the Alice Tully Hall crowd to arrive-- Fincher, Affleck, Pike, Flynn et al. wanted to sit through the 9 pm screening--we agreed that managing Oscar expectations would be tricky. First it has to be a hit: always a wise strategy. The movie opens wide October 3.
Here's what Fox has to worry about going forward:
1. Is the movie mainstream enough to be a hit?
The film generated some laughter from the press as well as the highbrow opening night crowd at Lincoln Center. There's a complex set of shifting tones. Fincher is making fun of our need for romance as well as those idiots in flyover land who swear by tabloid trash channels like TMZ, such as Amy's neighbor friend, the mother of triplets. Is the movie too sophisticated or smug? Both "A Social Network" and "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" were a tad too smart for the room; "The Social Network" lost Best Picture to "The King's Speech." (This year brings two heartwarming man-with-affliction period biopics, "The Imitation Game" and "The Theory of Everything.")
On the other hand, the man I was sitting next to at the screening was clearly identifying with Nick, and I'd argue that we will all recognize aspects of ourselves in Nick and Amy, even if most of us would never act out quite the way they did. "Gone Girl" was originally three hours long, and cutting it down was a struggle. But finally Fox was willing to let it be two and half hours. There was plenty of story to tell.
This movie will certainly be a hit with smart audiences, I have no doubt. It's hugely entertaining and will certainly play well enough to be perceived as a success.
2. Is the film too genre for the Academy?There are plenty of films that have risen above their genre origins to score with the Academy, if not with a Best Picture win, than plenty of nominations and other Oscars, from "Gravity" and "Avatar" to "Silence of the Lambs." But not Fincher's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo," which wound up winning one Oscar for Best Editing out of five nominations, including cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth and actress Rooney Mara.
Will this one follow the same path? "Gone Girl" is Hitchcockian, as we get caught up in flawed characters doing dastardly things. (There's even a section where Amy gets a "Vertigo" makeover.) Fincher's usual suspects Cronenweth, composers Atticus Ross & Trent Reznor and editor Kirk Baxter will be back in line for technical nominations, for sure; the movie is superbly wrought. Along with critics (so far Rotten Tomatoes is at 86%) the Golden Globes and guilds should support it.
'Gone Girl'
And Fincher is in the running, too. Affleck says he's both a tech savvy and actors' director. "You probably have pre and post Fincher in your work," said Pike. The cast has "to work as a ballet company, everybody has to make it sing," said Fincher. "Then you can [get a lot] across to an audience."
And the actors will go for smart Brit Pike for Best Actress. It's a great, juicy role involving multiple personas and moods and colors. She's comedic, she's anxiety-provoking, she's tragic and mysterious and beautiful. It's the best angry woman role since Nicole Kidman in "To Die For" or Glenn Close in "Fatal Attraction."
Also top-notch in support are Tyler Perry, who manages to make the cliched high-powered divorce attorney surprising to watch--he was cast, said Fincher, because of his extreme calm; "it's all about ease," said Perry--and Neil Patrick Harris, who plays an erudite rich fop obsessed with Amy.
'Gone Girl'
There's no such thing as too much publicity. "What will progressive women think of this movie?" Jeff Wells asked me the second it was over. "They will compare it to 'Fatal Attraction,'" I replied.
As Pike said at the press conference, she had a blast digging into the character of Amazing Amy, even if the movie doesn't take as much time to explain her as the book does. Amy likes to adopt different guises, and Pike goes all the way with it, complimenting Fincher on his precise tugging and pulling for more. The question is whether Fincher and his cast tip the balance toward Nick and against Amy. We do find ourselves taking sides. Fincher says Affleck was perfect casting, as long as he could keep him away from shooting Batman. Affleck, who endured his own media circus with JLo and "Gigli," makes Nick weak but believable and sympathetic. That's harder to do with Amy.
Fincher didn't quite know how to read the Brit Pike through her range of films ("An Education," "Price & Prejudice," "The World's End"). It was not being able to pin her down and then discovering she was an only child that cinched the deal. "Weird kid," laughed Pike, and Fincher replied, "No, just off."
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