“When I think of my wife, I think of her head. I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brains, trying to get answers.” And so go the opening lines of Gone Girl. My Fiction Writing course had us crafting open lines as an exercise, and that first sentence is intriguing. The second is disturbing. I saw this movie at a Regal in Newport News back in 2014 with a woman I was dating. I should’ve been more bugged out than I was. I just remember feeling sorry for Nick, the protagonist who’s being run through a twisted gauntlet by his missing wife, Amy. Now, I have a much different take.
(SPOILER ALERT: Do not read further if you’ve never seen the movie and plan to.)
On the morning of their five-year wedding anniversary, Nick’s wife, Amy, goes missing. It’s revealed later on that Nick was planning to divorce her to be with his mistress/student, Andie. In flashbacks, we see arguments over money, one of which culminates with Nick shoving Amy into a staircase.
Shortly after Amy goes missing, Nick is approached by a woman at a meeting devoted to finding her. She takes a selfie, Nick fakes a smile, said smile goes on the news, and people are suspicious as to why he’s smiling after her disappearance. This leads a couple of cops to investigate him. True to life: when a married woman goes missing/dead, the husband is the first person the police look at.
The twist: Amy’s manipulated the house to look as if Nick killed her. She goes on the road with money and a plan to kill herself and frame Nick for the murder. All for cheating and not being the man she expected him to me. They may as well call this film Don’t Get Married.
At one point, after his affair has been exposed, he goes on television to fess up to his part. His climactic speech, which draws Amy back to him, is similar to a log of wedding speeches, where he lionizes his wife. Later, when she’s returned, he says, “I only told you what you wanted to hear.” He did save his butt from one type of prison only to return to another type. During this exchange, he says, “All we did was try to resent each other and cause each other pain.” “That’s marriage,” she responds. And pundits wonder why less people are tying the knot?
“Marriage is hard work – and compromise – and compromise.” This is true, which may be why this “second job” comes with a litany of benefits. But in the context of this film/book, this job comes with a big risk.