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The Rewatchables ·

Gone Girl

year 2014decade 10sdirector David Finchergenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Mallory Rubinhost Sean Fennessey
All 15 categories

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award · 1:23:10

Staying with Amy after everything is the right call

Shea Serrano: His hottest take of the whole podcast: he would be in, because she really loves him a lot, or if not will pretend to; she believes in love and did all of that stuff; and she is very clear with her rules, do these things and everything will be great, so if he knows what to do he will do what he is told.

The objections: Nick never thinks for a second that he loves her or she him; what makes the interview sequence so good is watching her watch him, the chin moment, the tie and watch she gave him, like the Scoot McNary (as transcribed) scene's theme of crafting him; she goes home because she has lost control of the Desi situation and sees proof she can still make Nick what she wanted, which is recognition rather than love, enough for these two; the price is being a prisoner in your own home for eighteen years.

The film

Gone Girl (2014)

Directed by David Fincher · Drama

149 minutes

IMDbLetterboxdJustWatch
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Ben Affleck Nick Dunne, a professor
Rosamund Pike Amy Elliott Dunne , Nick's missing wife
Neil Patrick Harris Desi Collings, Amy's wealthy and obsessive ex-boyfriend
Tyler Perry Tanner Bolt, Nick's attorney
Carrie Coon Margo "Go" Dunne, Nick's twin sister
Kim Dickens Detective Rhonda Boney, the lead investigator on Amy's disappearance
Patrick Fugit Officer James Gilpin, Boney's partner
Missi Pyle Ellen Abbott, a cable TV host based on Nancy Grace
Emily Ratajkowski Andie Fitzgerald, Nick's mistress and student
Casey Wilson Noëlle Hawthorne, Nick and Amy's pregnant neighbor
Lola Kirke Greta, a young woman Amy meets at the Ozarks campground
Boyd Holbrook Jeff, a flirtatious man Amy meets at the Ozarks campground
Lisa Banes Marybeth Elliott, Amy's mother
Sela Ward Sharon Schieber, a network TV host
Scoot McNairy Tommy O'Hara, another former boyfriend of Amy's
Scott Takeda TV Producer
David Clennon Rand Elliott, Amy's father
Kathleen Rose Perkins Shawna Kelly

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

1:06:51

Casting What-Ifs

Jon Hamm, slated for Nick until Mad Men's Matthew Weiner would not release him; Tom Cruise and George Clooney weighed...

Jon Hamm, slated for Nick until Mad Men's Matthew Weiner would not release him; Tom Cruise and George Clooney weighed for Nick; Reese Witherspoon, who held the rights to play Amy before Fincher talked her out of it; Charlize, Natalie Portman, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Julianne Hough considered for Amy; Emily Ratajkowski cast on Ben Affleck's recommendation

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:51Read transcript
  • In the formal casting what-ifs, most having been covered already, the one new item is that Fincher cast Emily Ratajkowski on a recommendation from Ben Affleck, which the hosts find the funniest thing they have heard and worth a shout-out, joking about hiring her as a football writer to cover the NFC.
  • Jon Hamm was going to play Nick but Matthew Weiner would not let him out of his contract for the last season of Mad Men, the way The Office accommodated Ed Helms filming The Hangover at night; the part could have ignited Hamm's career as Don Draper in a bad marriage, though whether Hamm would have done the side dick is called the only question that matters.
  • The case against Hamm is that the role needs innate likability, and nobody ever simply liked Don Draper even if Hamm is loved in The Town and Baby Driver; the counter is that Nick is supposed to seem rationally likable yet somehow repellent, which Hamm could swing.
  • The relationship we have with Hamm is with Don Draper, while with Affleck it is with Affleck the public person; a Hamm version would still have been a good movie, because the film is about marriage, what women and men say they want, stardom and the media, bigger than Fincher's narcissism explanation; another voice thinks Hamm would have been good but loves that Affleck did this at the point of his completed comeback.
  • Tom Cruise as Nick Dunn is floated, with one voice calling the idea amazing, and rejected by the rest: he is too short and lacks Affleck's bulk and wide shoulders, you need to believe Nick can keep up with Amy, you need to see his belly exposed when he rolls over, and nobody can picture Cruise sitting down for Battlefield 3; Clooney fifteen years earlier is possible but a little too skinny.
  • Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights intending to produce and play Amy, met Fincher and somehow gave the part up; the hosts cannot picture her riding Neil Patrick Harris covered in blood, finding her too earnest, open and likable to go dead-eyed the way Amy requires.
  • Other names reported for Amy: Charlize and Natalie Portman, both of whom would have been interesting though Charlize carries baggage as an actress, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara whom Fincher had just worked with, Olivia Wilde, and strangest of all Dancing with the Stars' Julianne Hough, who got far down the road before her bid at a serious acting career stalled.
  • Fincher wanted an actress with a Faye Dunaway in Chinatown persona, someone who has experienced avenues of pain no one can articulate; he settled on Rosamund Pike because at 35 she could pass for 29 or 40, she was an only child like Amy, and after four or five of her movies he had never got a beat on her, an opacity he found interesting, when the natural move would have been Charlize.
  • Fincher has always had an eye for unproven, on-the-cusp talent, Pitt in Seven, Eisenberg and Rooney Mara in The Social Network, Mahershala Ali and Taraji Henson in Benjamin Button; the hosts expected Pike's career to go somewhere else after her Oscar nomination, and before this her notable role was Jack Reacher, an embarrassing part two years earlier.
  • Asked whether baggage with a real celebrity hurts a part like this, the answer is that for Amy you need to be totally confused about the person, the opposite of the Affleck character whom you must root for implicitly, so somebody you have never seen before makes it scarier. — Shea Serrano
  • Pike's biggest role until then was Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, the book that turns up in the bookshop where they have sex.
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1:12:18

Half-Assed Internet Research

Affleck studied men accused of killing their wives, especially Scott Peterson; Affleck lost a bet that Fincher would ...

Affleck studied men accused of killing their wives, especially Scott Peterson; Affleck lost a bet that Fincher would not notice a tiny lens change; the bar is now a real restaurant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Affleck's first on-screen full frontal, really a side view; 500 hours shot over a 100-day shoot; Pike and Neil Patrick Harris rehearsed the sex scene alone for two hours; Pike gained and lost 13 pounds three times; take 18 of the head-against-the-wall scene left Pike seeing stars; Gillian Flynn felt she had 'killed feminism' after the gender criticism; Reese Witherspoon held the rights before Fincher moved on

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:18Read transcript
  • Affleck researched several men accused and convicted of killing their wives, paying particular attention to Scott Peterson, awkward reading for anyone married to him; on set he changed a camera lens setting an almost indiscernible amount and bet a crew member that Fincher would not notice, and lost when Fincher brought it up.
  • Asked whom Fincher identifies with more, the answer is Amy; asked about Gillian Flynn, the answer is Nick, offered as exactly why the movie works: there is a Nick and there is an Amy.
  • The bar is now a real restaurant exactly where it was filmed in Cape Girardeau (transcribed 'Cape Gerardale'), Missouri; this was Affleck's first full frontal on screen, which Fincher wanted to feel like a European movie, warts and all, though the hosts quibble that it is side-frontal or side-back, compare it to a Batman comic given his Batman prep, and recall Sidedick.com as one of five finalist names for the Ringer.
  • Fincher shot an allegedly incredible 500 hours of material over the 100-day shoot, five hours a day; by Rosamund Pike's account she and Neil Patrick Harris spent two hours alone on set rehearsing their sex scene at Fincher's request, with an unverified report that she practiced with a children's doll (transcribed 'Adora the Explorer'); she gained and lost 13 pounds three times, hamburgers and malts to gain it, four hours a day with a boxer and five miles of running to lose it.
  • Around take 18 of Nick bashing her head against the wall, Pike literally saw stars and felt she had a minor concussion; the hosts were 100 percent shocked by that late moment and read it as purposeful: Nick is not off the hook, he is a bad guy rather than a good one, they will stay together forever with something toxic between them, and you should not feel pure sympathy for him.
  • Flynn reportedly admitted the gender-related critical response affected her: she hovered under her covers saying she had killed feminism and had not meant to, then got over it.
  • Flagged early as half-assed internet research: Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights, decided to produce and play Amy, then after meeting Fincher somehow let him talk her out of the part rather than insisting on it.
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1:17:22

Picking Nits

Meticulous Amy cannot hide her money and loses it at miniature golf; her suicide plan is not believable; the FBI neve...

Meticulous Amy cannot hide her money and loses it at miniature golf; her suicide plan is not believable; the FBI never interrogates her or presses on the box cutter; Nick going down on Amy with her underwear on; the cat on the stool amid broken glass and left home alone; Tanner Bolt winning Nick over by finding Tommy O'Hara online; the Mets hat instead of a Cardinals hat; media training ten minutes before the interview; Amy still covered in blood during the FBI interview; nobody hears the whispered 'kiss me' exchanges; the trust-fund math leaves them far from poor

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:22Read transcript
  • Amy spends three years framing Ben Affleck with diaries in different pens, a type-A maniac, yet absconds to a hotel and cannot figure out how to hide her money, unlike Josh Brolin (transcribed 'Josh Berlin') in No Country for Old Men pushing it through a vent; she just has a money belt.
  • A defense: this is the first time Amy has faced anything actually hard, a super-privileged person isolated in her fancy New York community and then in Missouri who has never slept in a place like that or dealt with scurrilous people, and never considered being robbed because she is always the one taking advantage; others disagree, noting she is ready to get out when they show up and that keeping the money on you is the right move.
  • Her mistake was getting excited about a hole in one at miniature golf; what kind of money belt falls off when you jump six inches in the air, and why play mini golf with those two fuckheads at all, except that she was getting comfortable in her new life; she slipped up, sloppy, right after making the long putt.
  • Her suicide plan is not believed: she loved herself too much and was too much a fan of Amy to ever kill herself, going through the charade while really wanting a twelve-year victory lap about how awesomely she framed him.
  • The FBI's incompetence: how is she not interrogated for seven hours instead of being let go because she seems tired, while covered in blood; the box cutter question is asked, but not by the agents, who fail to press on purpose; her look at Boney once she knows she has won is relished.
  • Nobody mentioned that on the night they meet, after the sugar storm, Nick goes down on Amy without removing her underwear, despite sugar handprints on the headboard showing they have been at it a while, the classic leg-blocking framing and the reverse angle of him lifting her underwear to look; she also keeps her underwear on with Desi, defended as being ready to escape or a known preference of hers, with men's-magazine advice blamed for Nick.
  • When Nick sweeps up the broken glass, Bleeker the cat sits on the stool, so he let him walk through glass, and he leaves the cat home alone rather than taking him to Go's house; Nick is sold on $100,000-retainer lawyer Tanner Bolt because Tanner finds Tommy O'Hara, a registered sex offender anyone could find online, who says women see it when they search him.
  • The Mets hat should have been a Cardinals hat; how did the money belt fall off when she jumped; the gummy-bear media training with Tanner Bolt happens ten minutes before the interview and is very clearly a first run-through; Amy staying covered in blood through the FBI interrogation is disgusting and makes no sense, except as commitment to the bit that sets up the blood running off in the shower.
  • Nobody hears what Nick whispers when they reunite or Amy's 'kiss me on the cheek' at the welcome-home event, and nobody sees that he does not do it, which one host enjoys as revealing the falseness of the whole presentation: life is fakery.
  • When they fight about money she says her parents took almost all of the million-dollar trust fund, but the later figure of $870-something thousand leaves her at least $120,000, so they are not poor and should relax about the job depression; their whole life is a fake version of struggle in a beautiful McMansion with French doors in Missouri.
  • Raised earlier, during what has aged best: Affleck puts on a Mets hat in the airport while wearing a Cardinals shirt for half the movie, which makes no sense unless he bought it there.
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1:37:16

Probably Unanswerable Questions

How many YouTube views would the clip of Amy returning covered in blood have? What would a Gone Girl sequel look like...

How many YouTube views would the clip of Amy returning covered in blood have? What would a Gone Girl sequel look like? What will the baby's life be like? Did no one hear them in the bookshop? Was there any fluffing? What would have happened if Nick had left? Did Amy go to Desi's knowing what she would do? Who are Tanner Bolt's two guys? What happened to Bleecker the cat?

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:37:16Read transcript
  • Amy's return to Nick's house in front of the cameras: estimates start at 25 million YouTube views and climb to 125 million, since it would be the craziest clip of all time and a national story.
  • Rosamund Pike has mentioned rumors of a Gone Girl sequel she would be interested in; it could be the ten-episode Netflix show, the further adventures of Amy Dunn (as transcribed) orchestrating something else the internet would hate, or a pitched Gone Girl 2 in which Amy, Ben and their Damien-like daughter visit a carnival and cartel members shoot up the place over Affleck's bad drug deal, a Den of Thieves or Peppermint crossover, or Gone Boy with a five-year-old kidnapped at the carnival.
  • What their kid's life will be like: good at soccer and an Ivy League school, against the reminder that Amy is a psychopath, not crazy in the casual euphemistic sense, the star of a future Mindhunter season, so the child would not be happy.
  • Did no one hear them in the bookshop, with a person very close by; asked what they would do if they heard, the hosts would walk away, maybe taking out a few books first; a call to bring out Ben Affleck to demonstrate how he pulled it off ends the section.
  • Asked, as a question just for her, whether there was any fluffing, she is glad it was brought up, has been wondering about it, and thinks there had to be a little. — Mallory Rubin
  • Whether Amy went to Desi's knowing what she would do the whole time, or decided once she lost her money, is parked as an interesting unanswerable question.
  • What would have happened if Nick had left: fear of exposure of things he had done, fear that she would do something like kill his sister, or the baby, which one host calls the only thing that makes him stay, while another senses an ambiguity in the conversation with Margot that he wants to be with her.
  • Leftover questions: Tanner Bolt's two guys he keeps mentioning could have filled thirty minutes; and what happened to Bleecker the cat, who is said to be thriving, or to have run away and been hit by a car.
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