Unpleasant as it is, Gone Girl (2014) is the misanthropic David Fincher movie I’ve been waiting for.  I have no use for Seven and The Social Network, but this film, not merely unpleasant, is riveting and pulpy-good.

Does polished Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) deserve to have her skull shattered, as her hubby Nick (Ben Affleck) sort of intimates?  Well, clearly their marriage has become unstable, but then Amy turns up missing and suspicion understandably falls on put-upon Nick.  See the movie and you’ll know why I say “understandably.”

Astutely directed by Fincher, Gone Girl was admirably screenwritten by the woman on whose novel the film is based—viz., Gillian Flynn—and offers nicely eccentric music by Trent Razor and Atticus Ross.  The acting ranges from competent (Affleck) to superlative (Pike and probably the magnetic Carrie Coon).  Sex and unclothed female bazooms are there and are shot un-vulgarly.

English: Rosamund Pike at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)