Gone Girl – Richards Reckons Review

Sheeeeeeee may be the face I can’ttt forgettttt…

So the trailer song for Gone Girl goes, that is. But will the face of the Gone Girl really be the face you can’t forget? I know you’re tense and want to get to the review, I can feel it, so I’ll get going with it;

Gone Girl is a film rather than an actual girl, and wouldn’t you know it, films have plots, so the plot of Gone Girl is this; Amy (Rosamund Pike, the girl who is gone) and Nick Dunne (Batfleck, I mean Ben Affleck) have been married for 5 years after meeting at a cool party in the big NYC. On the morning of their fifth anniversary, Nick goes to visit his twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon) at the bar that they own, and comes back to find a smashed table and no wife. A media frenzy is whipped up as her author parents (who based a character on her in her childhood) set up the hunt for Amazing Amy, helped by local police including the stern Detective Boney (Kim Dickens). But fingers start to get pointed in all sorts of directions as the hunt for Amy begins to get more and more twisted and frenetic, including towards Nick himself…

Gone Girl is brought to the screen by director David Fincher (famous for his dark adaptations to screen and his gloomy colour pallette) and the author of the fiercely popular novel on which it is based, scriptwriter Gillian Flynn (who is not famous for her dark adaptations to screen or her gloomy colour pallette). The fact that the novel is being transported to the screen via the same author as the same material means that all the important character moments and chunks and pieces that define said characters are kept in there intact. That, combined with going through the dark prism that is the direction of David Fincher, means that Gone Girl is a dark, demented and intricate ride through the worst marriage you could probably imagine, with the main antagonist in fact probably being the media, which overhypes and magnifies every single instance of the case like carnivorous fleas feasting on every little details (not that fleas tend to magnify, but hey, it’s an analogy I like).

The performances too are a key ingredient to this film’s immense success. For reasons that I can’t go into due to wanting to stay away from a potential spoiler safari, this is very much Rosamund Pike’s show. Her performance is hair-blown-back-ifyingly good with all the range she has to capture; she is electrifying in this role, making it truly her own to the point that it’s hard to imagine anybody else doing it. Ben Affleck too captures Nick Dunne incredibly well – a sympathetic guy who balances the line constantly between truthful protagonist and potential suspect. There isn’t a dull moment in terms of performance here; Neil Patrick Harris plays his role with aloofness with a little edge; Carrie Coons is brilliant as Nick’s ‘voice of reason’; and Tyler Perry provides a charm-offensive turn as the amazingly named lawyer Tanner Bolt. They deliver the sparky, quick-paced dialogue of the Fincherverse (see: The Social Network) very well, making it feel authentic as well as charismatic.

The runtime may put people off and think “BLIMEY, that’s a lot of minutes, my poor bottom!”, but know this; every single minute of it is justified and utilised to provide revelation after revelation and set up after set up. Every moment is used to ensure the cracks in the relationships are noticed and seep into the audience, keeping you constantly guessing just what the ruddy heck is going on; but in a good, compelling way rather than a “wait… what?” way. The score by the always amazing Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is also brilliantly used to make everything eerie and always feel uneasy and unravelling; the dark synths droning underneath all the scenes like a constant presence of dread.

This is the kind of film that will definitely warrant a waffle afterwards as it will stay with you for so long. It’s a morally horrific rollercoaster ride of a mystery thriller, stopping off at intrigue and a surprising amount of laughs along the way (a Tanner Bolt line towards the end summarises what the audience is thinking in a beautiful way). The stars are on top, top form and, indeed, she WILL be the face you can’t forget. If you can take dark, go and see this literally right now. NOW! GO! Get GONE, GIRL! (hehe, sorry, that only works if you’re a lady but still, GO SEE IT!)

A Million Ways To Die In The West – Richards Reckons Review

WARNING: This review contains the word “juxtaposes”.

The first thing to say about this film is this – it REALLY made me want a moustache.

Really really.

There’s a whole song about how classy and wonderful they are, plus Neil Patrick Harris has one and celebrates it like a medal of valour. I mean, LOOK AT IT;

Damn suave mother-effer, that one.

Anywho, A Million Ways To Die In The West is the latest film offering by Seth MacFarlane, otherwise known as ‘Mr Family Guy’ or ‘Captain Ted’ (because he made those things). This really is a pet project for him; it’s directed by, produced by, written by and starring Mr MacFarlane (writing and starring in a film in which you get intimate with Charlize Theron, you cheeky devil…), meaning it couldn’t have more of his personal stamp on it unless it literally had his name branded into every frame like a cow’s bottom. Which would have been quite pertinent, actually…

The plot is as follows; Seth plays Albert Stark (no relation to either Tony or Sansa), a sheep farmer who has a rather modern awareness of how dreadful the American west is and is therefore a bit of a coward; so much so that he loses his Amanda Seyfried flavoured girlfriend for not wanting to be part of a duel. Charlize Theron’s Anna rides into town and, after he saves her from a bar fight, agrees to help him win her back. The plot from there is pretty by numbers and, with the removal of the Western setting, anybody who has ever seen a rom-com with this plot can guess what happens next.

One of the first things that strikes you about A Million Ways To Die In The West is how unexpectedly good looking it is (much like when people first meet me too). The colouring of the vast desertscapes along with the sunsets and dusty rocky canyons look beautiful. You can easily make a checklist of everything in the Western genre and tick each one off as you watch the film (although don’t do that because you won’t be able to see what you’re doing and will have to put on a light to see and then everybody in the cinema will hate you and maybe spit at you), but that’s not to say that it doesn’t look staggering. I take my cowboy hat off (literally – I’m wearing one as I type this) to Seth and the rest of the photography team for directing such beautiful Western vistas.

What one might expect from a film set in the West is an extended Family Guy/American Dad episode; zany, fast-paced, stuffed and overflowing with gags (both hit and miss), with a tendency of mocking everything left, right and centre in both a satirical way and a plain crude way. That description, by the way, is not a slight on Family Guy and American Dad – I really like both – but it’s what you’d think you’d get from this film. With the exception of one absolutely bizarre and surreal sequence (you’ll know exactly which part I mean when you see it), on the whole, that isn’t exactly what you get. Like Ted was, in areas A Million Ways (I’m shortening it to that because I frankly can’t be bothered to type out the whole title over and over, though I used even more energy typing out this explanation, damnit!) is surprisingly sentimental and sweet. The scenes between Anna and Albert (and there are a LOT of them) can actually quite lovely, however some may find it a bit too sweet and overkill-ish due to just how many there are, like a minigun firing sugar and marshmallows.

A Million Ways’ humour works best when it juxtaposes the genre and setting of the Wild, Wild West (not the Will Smith film) with modern day attitudes and standards of society – for example, one of the funniest throwaway lines are Stark and Giovanni Ribsi’s character commenting on a child playing with a stick and ball with arguments that echo modern day arguments about videogames almost verbatim. It does well to ridicule the ridiculousness of it all from a modern lens and how death is almost around every corner, whether accidentally or through duels. And, for me anyway, it passes the 6 laugh test. The characters that populate this world, too, are funny but mostly one note, such as Sarah Silverman’s prostitute who has Christian values when it comes to premarital sex; a funny joke, certainly, but that’s all her character is. Liam Neeson, too, is simply an utter utter bastard (needlessly killing an old man, hitting his wife and threatening to kill a dog – the trilogy in the bastardry in cinema) and nothing more. Seyfried is given even less to work with, apart from acting bitchy and defending her eyes. Seth himself though, acting for the first time in front of the camera rather than in mo-cap or in a recording booth, is a good onscreen presence – he’s likeable and, on the whole, not as cartoonish as you expect.

The overriding problem with A Million Ways is far, far too much toilet humour. Don’t get me wrong, in small doses it can be funny, but there’s a cacophony of Fart and the Gang jokes in here that just feels lazy and feels like Seth and the writing team could do a lot better, with one scene of this kind that goes on for far, far too long. It’s no surprise that the makes of Family Guy etc bring you this kind of thing, but it just feels like it brings the rest of the film down and feels unnecessary. If you can get through all of these jokes and the bum notes (no pun intended… kind of), there’s an enjoyable film to be found here, especially for people who know and love the Western genre. 

Oh, and there are a cameos too, both of famous faces (blink and you’ll miss Ewan McGregor) and, most hilariously, a couple of fictional characters (if you have the internet you’ll know about one of them, but the other one I’ll leave as a surprise…).