Well, dear readers, I cannot remember the last time I ventured out and saw an actual motion picture on an actual motion picture screen but it’s definitely been over a year. But yesterday, I went to the DGA for a screening of a motion picture entitled Gone Girl. I’d heard a bit about it, heard the book on which the film is based is quite good and I’ve enjoyed some of director David Fincher’s films over the years. And this film has been very divisive, with all the auterists shouting “masterpiece” to the high heavens and others shouting “terrible” to the low heavens. Now, here’s how I run on David Fincher – I enjoyed Seven, Panic Room and The Social Network. I refused to see Fight Club and will probably never see it, I thought Benjamin Button was terrible, I thought Zodiac was okay and I really liked The Social Network, at least until I watched the making-of featurette – after seeing Mr. Fincher’s working methods that film lost a lot of its allure for me. I thought his version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was dreadful and not a patch on the butt cheeks of the original Swedish version. Which brings us to Gone Girl.
To begin: This is a dark film – I mean literally DARK, like in hard to see and for no reason. It is also green and yellow, as so many of today’s films are. I understand that if you’re trying to make some visual style point, but here it’s just pointless, at least for me it was. The film began interestingly and even though I wasn’t loving it I went with it for its long first half. And then the second half began, and while Fincher’s drab, dreary visual style stayed the same, and while the wall-to-wall wallpaper music (more aural sound design) kept droning away, the tone of the film suddenly became a black comedy/satire and as each minute passed by it became more and more irritating to me. You could literally feel the audience’s interest recede due to their confusion. The media portrayal became silly, especially the Nancy Grace-like lady. But mostly, the plot became wacky and the ending was so ridiculous, in my opinion that the film just dies before your very eyes. Normally there is always appreciative applause at the DGA screenings – here there was total silence and then a quick mass exodus from the theater.
I think a lot of what didn’t work for me probably worked in the book as literary devices. The dialogue especially was not something any human being would actually speak. Again, in the book it was probably fine, but coming out of the actors’ mouths, not so much. I don’t usually care about or even notice plot holes or stuff like that, but they were in plentiful abundance in this movie. It’s also very long, clocking in at about 145 minutes. There are also some casting gaffes that prove troublesome, most especially Neil Patrick Harris. I’ve been told that that character in the book is quite different than in the film. Whatever it is, Mr. Harris is simply the wrong actor in the wrong part. And frankly, Ben Affleck doesn’t really work either. I gather in the book you really believe he might have done something dastardly, but in the film I never for a minute believed he was guilty of anything and that’s a big problem with this story. Also, people seem to think the plot is fresh and surprising, but sorry, it just isn’t. In the end, some good things but, again for me, the film just didn’t work.
Prior to seeing the film, I’d gotten a bit over eight hours of sleep, which was lovely. I did some work on the computer, went and had a chili, cheese and onion omelet (which, for some reason, didn’t have any onions) and an English muffin, and then it was time to mosey on over to the DGA.
After the movie, I went to Gelson’s and got some snacks for my evening foodstuffs, a tiny bit of mac-and-cheese, some shrimp cocktail shrimp and some balls of melon. I ate them all up whilst listening to an upcoming Kritzerland master, which sounded great. I thought it was going to be the Sandy album, but for some reason the mastering guy did the soundtrack first. Hopefully the Sandy album will be coming in the next day or so. I then did the event page for the November Kritzerland show – that, as always, took two hours.
Today, I will try to figure out the show order so I can write the commentary. I’d love to finish it, actually, and get it out of the way. I’ll eat, I have to go to the El Portal Theatre to make all the arrangements for our launch party of And the World Goes Round next Monday, I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, and then I’ll relax.
Tuesday is a Sandy meeting, Wednesday is another meeting, and the rest of the week continues along those lines, plus I’m seeing at least one show, maybe two.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, figure out the show order, write commentary, eat, go to the El Portal, hopefully pick up packages and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What recent films or TV shows you’ve seen would you recommend to your fellow dear readers? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, thinking that Gone Girl was more like Gone Movie.