In a sense, Fincher gives us a perversely perfect first date movie with Gone Girl. It's an in-depth examination of a long-term relationship that makes you wonder if it's possible to really know or trust anyone.
After finally watching this ruthlessly constructed, exquisitely vicious depiction of all-out gender warfare, I would say that, yes, Gone Girl is anti-female. It's also anti-male. Hell, it's anti-human. That's where the fun comes in.
Not all the veers and neck-cranking developments pay off, but there's a lot to praise in the moody, fractious friction throughout and the enigmatic desolation in the pools of Pike's limpid blue eyes.
Fincher is as Fincher does. And what Fincher does better than almost anyone is create moody, meticulously crafted thrillers that straddle the divide between genre and art.
