David Fincher’s cinematic take on Gillian Flynn’s thrilling novel, Gone Girl, is almost upon us. And as the first reviews sneak their way online, we’re beginning to get a pre-emptive indication of how it fared with the critics.
Overall, it seems, Gone Girl has been received overly well, with many outlets praising the lead performances —played here by Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike — along with Fincher’s jet-black take on the source material. In fact, those who managed to get a glimpse of the film before its imminent release also praised the surprising sense of humour.
Here’s a round-up of those opinions:
Empire: Stylish, twisted and daring, Gone Girl is a David Fincher date movie: dark, smart and dangerous. If it doesn’t deliver in its finale, its twist, turns and commitment to moral repugnance will leave you reeling.
The Wrap: Not only brutal but also brutally funny, “Gone Girl” mixes top-notch suspenseful storytelling with the kind of razor-edged wit that slashes so quick and clean you’re still watching the blade go past before you notice you’re bleeding.
Variety: Graced with a mordant wit as dry and chilled as a good Chablis, as well as outstanding performances from Ben Affleck and a revelatory Rosamund Pike, Fox’s Oct. 3 wide release should push past its preordained Oscar-contender status to galvanize the mainstream.
Time Out New York: Transformed into the kind of wickedly confident Hollywood thriller you pray to see once in a decade, Gillian Flynn’s absorbing missing-wife novel emerges—via a faithful script by the author herself—as the stealthiest comedy since American Psycho. It’s a hypnotically perverse film, one that redeems your faith in studio smarts (but not, alas, in local law enforcement, tabloid crime reporting or, indeed, marriage). No secrets will be revealed here, apart from an obvious one: Director David Fincher, also the maker of Seven, Zodiac and The Social Network, is more than just your everyday stylish cynic
Above all else it seems as though Fincher’s adaptation proved to be overly faithful after all, given that many Gone Girl fans were apprehensive that his rendition would deviate from the eponymous novel.
Gone Girl will arrive in theaters on October 3rd, 2014. It stars Ben Affleck as husband-turned-suspect Nick Dunne, Rosamund Pike, Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry.