Sage Cortez
Gone Girl, directed by David Fincher
I could have picked an easier one to start with, but this was the last movie I watched. Ben Affleck plays Nick Dunne, and Rosamund Pike plays Amy Dunne. Both lost their jobs during the recession and when Nick’s mother became ill, they moved to Missouri, creating the circumstances leading to the events of the film. Amy disappears after her husband becomes a violent, disinterested cheater, and when Nick invites the police into their shared home, they find poorly cleaned blood stains in the kitchen. Of course, that leads the police to believe she was murdered.
The second act is extremely favorable towards Nick, and engineered to make people have overwhelming sympathy for a spousal abuser and cheater. Judging by the reviews on the internet about the movie, people certainly fell into the pattern of doing so. After the reveal, Amy was portrayed as a character we’d be glad to see bad things happen to. Given that she was trying to get somebody put to death for a murder they didn’t commit, is this right? These are the sorts of questions Gone Girl forces the audience to ponder.
Tyler Perry turns in an inspired performance as Tanner Bolt, a lawyer who defends husbands accused of killing their wives. Neil Patrick Harris is similarly good as a psycho ex-boyfriend named Desi Collings, and the obsession required of his role came off well on-screen. Carrie Coon plays Nick’s twin sister Margo, and provided the voice of levity necessary on that side of the story to keep the audience from getting carried away. The supporting cast was very well chosen, and held the film together.
Ultimately, the movie’s ending left me with more questions than answers. Although other scenes were unrealistic, large chunks of the movie were a good study in examining unstable relationships, and the breakdown in communication between partners. I don’t necessarily feel that the film was misogynist, but I feel that the abuse and cheating was glossed over far more than it should have been. The “this bitch is crazy” aspect of the movie became too prevalent the longer it went on. Fincher is a very good director and this movie was no exception. Given that this was an adaptation, he had to remain faithful to the source material.
7.5/10
Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón
I wanted to catch this before it went off HBOGo, and it certainly did not disappoint. I’m not going to only watch critically acclaimed movies, but maybe I should. I had regretted not seeing this in theaters. I also have a habit of ignoring movie previews and didn’t really understand the subject matter. No, I am not joking.
The special effects in this movie deserve far greater words than I am able to write. I was fooled into thinking that Bullock’s scene where she was drifting out into endless space would go on for much longer than it actually did. Without spoiling anything in case anyone happens to click on this, I found the first of the two interludes between super intense scenes to be far better than the other. Given that the movie only features two living people you see, any potential monologue has to be really damn good. The one in this movie wasn’t.
Tracking shots are one of my favorite things, and the one that opened this movie was so long and so good that I really wasn’t expecting what happened. The presentation of the initial disaster was not quite something I was ready for. I actually rewound it and watched it a few times. Some of the scenes in the movie are quite obviously unrealistic, but I don’t quite care. I enjoyed the intensity of it, although I don’t believe I’d be able to watch it again and have the same feelings stir up. I did not have that feeling with Children of Men. It’s hard to believe Cuarón released that 9 years ago. This is a hallmark of technical brilliance more than anything else.
8.5/10
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, directed by Mike Newell
I had never seen this before, and felt that after the first three, I could go my whole life without seeing the rest. Perhaps I was wrong. I still do think the third is the best one of these that I’ve watched.
Despite the nearly three hour run-time, I enjoyed watching this because of the ensemble cast. Any movie where Brendan Gleeson gets this kind of screen time is certain to bring something good to the table. Some of the things in these movies can’t be easy to film; particularly with the makeup involved, and he would appear to have gotten the worst of it. I thought he stole the show in any case. The obvious problem with a film like this is that the characters who need time in the movie never get enough of it. In a series such as this, some characters tend to fade in and out, but I still think it’s a problem. I also believe that Michael Gambon’s take on Dumbledore is better than that of Richard Harris.
Another problem was the way that the movie cut past scenes that seemed like they would be important. I recall at the quidditch match at the beginning of the movie, they introduced the teams, then jumped straight to the match being over with no information on who won. As an adaptation, I do understand that it is required to condense things. Still, the movie would have been better if all of the cuts kept the viewer in touch with the happenings. The scene at the ball, with Harry and Ron sitting there, brought back some interesting memories of my freshman year of high school that I hadn’t thought about in some time. I’ll probably watch the others at some point, but definitely not right one after the other or anything like that. I’ve never read the books nor do I care to. Perhaps it is easier for the directors to make these movies given that nearly everyone else has.
7/10
