April Showers: Gone Girl
Monday, April 18, 2016 at 11:00PM 
In April Showers, Team TFE looks at our favorite waterlogged moments in the movies. Here's Chris on Gone Girl (2014).
Gone Girl is a variation on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, its Nick and Amy being the new George and Martha. But instead of a pair of unwitting guests, this George and Martha use the media to attack one another - and the verbal barbs are traded in for actual bloodshed. David Fincher loads the film with the darkest rapid fire comedy, much like Edward Albee's acidic play, and the final beats of both can spark immediate audience conversation.
The final act of Gone Girl is where the film reveals its darkest side. If you haven't yet seen the film or read the source novel, then you don't know that the first two acts are pretty twisted themselves. The film's structure and narrative conceits keep us from seeing the true version of this George and Martha together until Amy's third act return...
The shower scene is preserved for author Gillian Flynn's source novel, though was more instantly famous in the film for a peekaboo, barely there glimpse at Ben Affleck's floppy bits. The actor nudity is actually smartly placed in the scene for it lends Nick an immediate vulnerability that's unmatched by Amy's unflappable presence.
In fact, Amy's pristine naked body is as much of a threat to Nick as the words coming out of her mouth. Her ability to wash the blood clean off of her body tells Nick that this whole episode can be written off or he can be the one written off. Even Rosamund Pike's vocal nonchalance suggests "see, it's that easy." By comparison, Nick hasn't even gotten wet yet.
By now, Amy has already fooled the police with her story, she just has to get Nick to fall in line. Just like George and Martha, their sad and twisted love for one another doesn't come without punshment.
One of the most impressive and terrifying aspects of Pike's performance is the ferocious confidence her Amy has - at this point in the story, she already knows that she has won and we fear that she will. Pike's final battles with Affleck in this last act are her shining moments and certainly cemented her Oscar nomination.
Sleep on it.
Reader Comments (17)
YAS KWEEN!
Still think that Rosamund Pike deserves to win that Oscar.
Amy Elliot Dunne is truly one for the ages.
There was audible groaning at my screening when the movie ended.
Love Rosamund Pike, love that performance, and I love this article for letting me count the ways that she is awesome and this movie is a classic. Nicely done.
NSFW? Only if you work in a convent... ;-)
Julianne Moore winning over Rosamund was like DiCaprio x Fassbender this year, "but they're due!!!!!" Oscar over the actual deserving winner. Not that I'm unhappy over Julianne winning, but it stings that Rosamund didn't take it for Gone Girl. And that GG didn't get any more nods.
I still think Julianne Moore was better. That performance is so nuanced and detailed and precise. It's not her best performance, but, wow, it'd be the best performance of a lot of great actresses.
On Gone Girl, I strongly suggest you to see Truffaut's Mississipi Mermaid. It's about getting fooled by a dangerous woman and not being able to get over her. PIke's hair reminds me Catherine Deneuve, too, and I could bet Fincher had this movie in his mind.
Marion Cotillard gave the best performance that year. Twice.
It amazes me that we get to see Rosamund Pike covered in blood a couple of times, but we only get two seconds of Ben's penis. It's a sick double standard, if you ask me.
Leave Her to Heaven(1947) with Gene Tierney(in her unique nomination
for the Oscar) has the same theme
of Gone Girl, with the classic scenes of the young sick brother-in-law
and the scene on the stairs among others
and the amazing colorful cinematography(won this Oscar)
for a noir movie.
I agree with all that think that Rosamund Pike deserved to win and
that the movie should have been nominated in other categories.
Leave Her to Heaven is 1945. Sorry.
I think it's like: Cotillard in The Immigrant (best performance of the decade) > Moore in Maps to the Stars > Moore in Still Alice > Cotillard in Two Days One Night
Nope, didn't deserve the Oscar, maybe not even the nom because, as I've said before, the first third of performance (when she's trying to be the "cool girl") was all wrong.
And even if it's not Moore's best performance, it really is fantastic in so many ways. Cotillard was also great but Moore is a perfectly deserving winner that year.
Although having said that, the rest of Pike's performance is pretty great. And it is a shame the film was otherwise ignored, especially Flynn's adaptation.
I thought Pike was miscast as Amy and would never let her near a nom esp after giving several better Supporting Roles performances..
Loved Rosamind's performance here.
Why hasn't her career taken off after this?
Sosowie: She took some time off to take care of ner newborn baby. She has several interesting projects lined up which will hopefully hit theatres soon.
To be fair to Moore, Still Alice is a great touching, performance that do DESERVE the Oscar! The fact that she was also due makes her win doubly joyful.
No doubt Pike gives a cool, assured & delicious performance to kill for (all pun intended) but her Amy din pick up a single award from any critic groups or award bodies, not even BAFTA which is her home-turf. But I luv the comparison between Gone Girl & Leave Her to Heaven!! Maybe Pike can play Tierney in a biopic??? Lol
IMO, Cortillard is good in The Immigrants & 2 Days 1 Night, but she was better in Rust & Bone that strangely din land her a nom then.
Team Julianne. Without a doubt.