Book vs. Movie: Gone Girl

A review and comparison of the movie/book Gone Girl

(Archive Original)

I had read the praises for Gone Girl when it was published in 2012, but didn’t get around to reading it until a couple weeks before the movie was released. See, I’m a sucker for books that are turned into movies, which is why I read Gone Girl then saw the movie and am now writing this new but not so original concept column. 

I loved Gone Girl the book. I liked Gone Girl the movie.

Let me start with my biggest complaint and one that nearly ruined the movie for me: Amy didn’t get the last word. It’s a big deal in the book that she gets the last word. She deserves it. It’s a fitting end to the book. In the movie, Nick gets the last word. He doesn’t mention it like Amy does in the book, but you know it by the fact that he speaks the last. It’s an unfortunate end to an otherwise good movie. The sad part is, unlike adding an extra scene, it would’ve taken no extra run time to just change the last narration. 

Otherwise the movie followed the book pretty well. There were some notable exceptions, but for the most part I was pleased with adaptation. It was a long movie, but there were only a couple of throwaway scenes. In fact, I would’ve liked to see a couple more scenes. Particularly one where Nick is drunk in a bar and further confesses his love for Amy in order to bring her back. It’s a pretty pivotal scene in the book, and it would’ve added a little more to the movie. 

I thought Rosamund Pike was fantastic as Amy. It seems like she’s a safe bet to get an Oscar nomination for her performance and I’ll definitely be rooting for her when award season rolls around. She captured Amy perfectly and transformed herself for the role. Even though she’s a manipulative psycho bitch, I love the character of Amy because she’s so up front and smart about her ways. Pike brought the character to life better than I could’ve ever imagined and definitely surpassed my expectations. 

Ben Affleck did a good job as Nick, but wasn’t quite as smarmy and uncaring as I would’ve hoped. I think he was trying to be subtle with his smiles and facial expressions, but instead just missed stuff that made Nick who he was in the book. Admittedly, I'm not a huge Affleck fan (although he was the bomb in Phantoms) so I could just be nit-picking. 

My biggest complaint as far as casting goes was Tyler Perry as Tanner Bolt. I don’t care that, in the book, Tanner is portrayed as a white person. I care that Tyler Perry isn’t very good at anything he’s in. They couldn’t get Terrence Howard or Don Cheadle for the role? In fact, Cheadle would’ve been perfect as Tanner Bolt. The rest of the cast was good, although I would’ve liked to see more of Neil Patrick Harris as Desi Collings.

One scene that they cut short that I would’ve liked to see more of was when Nick went to visit Desi to see what kind of involvement and history he had with Amy. In the book, Nick is let inside while he and Desi has a long conversation until Desi’s mom eventually interrupts things. In the movie, they have a brief conversation as Nick stands outside Desi’s door. The mom, who actually shows up later in the book, is nowhere to be seen. 

Speaking of characters that were left out, I think they were better off just leaving out Nick’s dad instead of including him in one throwaway scene that did nothing to advance the story. Nick’s parents are a pretty significant detail in the book as they play into Amy’s master plan, but aren’t really prevalent in the movie outside of the one scene with Nick’s dad.  

Desi’ death, which was only slightly described in the book after Amy returned home, was brutally shown in the movie and I appreciated that. Even though it was a pretty disturbing scene, it’s also a big point in the book and movie and it would’ve been a shame if Amy just described the death. It definitely added a huge jaw dropping visual moment to movie that got most of its big moments through storytelling. 

Like most book to movie adaptations, the book is better. It’s honestly very tough to capture a good book in movie form because people are only willing to sit through a movie for a limited amount of time. Even long movies like The Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter leave a lot of things out from the books. 

Even though I prefer the book, the movie is definitely worth checking out. If you liked the book then you’ll like the movie and if you’ve never read the book, you’ll still like the movie.