Films are often perceived as a simple means of
entertainment, and they usually succeed in doing this. However, it’s easy to
literally look over these small details that can tell us more about what is
being shown on screen, and potentially what’s hiding behind it. Hollywood has a
large pool of talented directors who pride themselves on such subtly. One of
these directors is David Fincher, known for his precision in filmmaking. His
most recent film, Gone Girl stands
out based on his philosophy of film making. To briefly summarize the plot of Gone Girl, this is a film that explores
the events surrounding a man named Nick Dunne and the disappearance of his
wife, Amy. As the film progresses, the media’s perception of Nick changes based
upon several plot developments in the film. This causes the media frenzy to
increase surrounding their relationship, and ultimately Nick’s public persona.
It is therefore clear that David Fincher’s Gone
Girl is an exploration of how the media is able to manipulate what is true,
and its abilities of persuasion towards the public.
In
the first twenty-five minutes of the film when Nick along with his mother and
father in law make their first public appearance before the media, it’s
important to focus on the tone of Nick’s voice when he speaks. His tone is
lethargic, and almost sounds like he is uncaring about the current
disappearance of his wife. After Nick makes his speech, we get a shot of
detective Jim Gilpin’s face, which appears to be a foreshadowing of his
attitude and opinion of Nick. Compare this to how Amy’s parents sound. Her
father actually sounds somewhat similar to Nick, but his dialogue describing
her as “she really is Amazing Amy” (which refers to her children’s book series)
is a clear indication of how concerned he is, and is perhaps tired rather than
uncaring. His short speech also implies that Amy is well known, when he says
that “millions” of readers grew up with her books. The mother’s speech is perhaps
the most professional, where she gives the location of the volunteer
headquarters. It’s also interesting to note that while Amy parents are
speaking, Nick looks tired, and uninterested, and often glances over towards
his sister. Nick is also considerably far away from Amy’s parents, a clear
visual indication that Nick is not personally close to Amy’s parents. After
Amy’s mother has concluded her speech, Nick makes a fatal mistake, but it isn’t
directly his fault upon further analysis. Nick poses with one of the two large
missing posters with Amy’s smiling face while reporters take pictures, and his
current expression doesn’t necessarily imply any sort of smirk or smug
attitude. If you listen closely you can hear someone say “smile”, Nick does
smile, and the cameras keep rolling. This scene, while short is very important
because it’s the first time the media gets a good look at Nick Dunne, and his
impressions on them are not going to be in his favor. This is where we need to
look at some basic psychology. Vanessa Van Petten’s article titled “5 Ways To
Make a Killer First Impression” starts off with the following:
Most people will judge you within the first second of meeting you and their opinion will most likely never change. Making a good first impression is incredibly important, because you only get one shot at it (Petten, 2011).
Scanning along the article, you’ll find that the third tip
is to be mindful of your body language. She explains that posture and the angle
of your body can go a long way to make a better impression. When Nick smiled,
he only did this because someone from the crowd told him to. After he finishes
posing with the photo, Amy’s parents are not smiling in any capacity, and their
facial expressions show concern. Throughout the film Nick’s picture with the
poster will be used to damage his public persona. A popular saying, “A picture
is worth a thousand words” absolutely applies to this photo of Nick’s seemingly
smug smile. On a final note about this scene, there is an interesting
reason why Ben Affleck was cast to play the lead. Fincher picked him because Affleck
is someone in the media who is constantly being covered, as well as a certain annoyance
with it. Fincher also picked Affleck for his smile, which proves to be
effective throughout the film, especially in this scene (Kashdan, 2015).
Nick’s
actions continue to build suspicion with the police. He drives over to his
dad’s house (although he is currently in assisted living, therefore he is not
there to visit his dad) and triggers an alarm when entering the home. While
trying to disarm the alarm, he finds the third envelope of clues in his dad’s
house, but doesn’t present this evidence to the police when they meet him. When
he is confronted by detective Rhnoda and her partner, Jim. Nick then asks if
they’re following him, since they were so quick to respond to the house
intruder alarm. At this point both the media and police are not necessarily in
a good relationship with Nick. Two days into Amy’s disappearance, the film
takes viewers to the volunteer headquarters. Again, focusing on body language,
Nick walks around greeting volunteers, and makes yet again another fatal
mistake, and this time it’s is all on him. While Nick is walking around, Amy’s
parents are keeping an eye on him. He walks past a group of women, where one in
particular looks at him, and he gives a small smile. After she looks away, Nick
looks to the right, and we see Amy’s parents, who witnessed the whole exchange.
Que Nick’s sister, who says “you look like hammered shit”. Notice also how when
Nick walks around, it appears almost as if everyone is circling around him,
much like an arena. While talking to detective Rhonda, he excuses himself to
help someone who appears to be homeless, by giving him a bag full of food. Her
partner, Jim doesn’t buy his act of kindness, saying “Oh, look. He’s being a
good guy, so everybody can see him being a good guy”. After Rhonda replies, he
then says “What’s to like?”. After Nick helps the homeless man, he sees Amy’s
stalker, and tries to talk to him. Instead, Nick yet again has a fatal
encounter that will, again, go against his public persona. The woman Nick was
looking at earlier greets herself as Shona Kelly, and wants to cook for Nick.
Shona then rubs his left arm, and takes a picture, or “selfie” with him. When
Nick sees the picture, he asks Shona to delete the photo. She dismisses the
request at first, but again Nick asks twice and tries to reach for her phone.
Shona gets annoyed and walks away, saying she will “share it with whoever I
please”. Nick clearly knows that if this photo gets around, he will seem
dishonest.
Finally,
the viewer gets their first news segment with Ellen Abbott’s news show, where
we hear her say “…pie eating grin, from a guy whose wife is missing”. This scene
takes place at Margo’s home (Nick’s sister). He sees the news segments but ignores
it. This is the audience’s first true glimpse of how the media is projecting
Nick’s persona, and thus the start of the media frenzy. Skipping ahead we see
Nick is having an affair with a college student, and when his sister finds out,
she forces Nick to watch the news, saying “they’re all over your shit”. We then
see that “selfie” picture from the volunteer center that Nick did indeed try to
get deleted, knowing it could potentially come back on him, which it did.
Later, we see detective Jim Gilpin is watching Ellen’s news segment, and says
“I can’t believe we haven’t arrested this guy”. At this point in the film, news
stories have been running and the public is judging Nick based on his first
impressions. Ellen Abbott’s news segment carries with it her own personal bias against
Nick which is well known towards the viewers. There is absolutely nothing wrong
about having a news segment whose anchor (often the primary appeal towards the
show) gives their opinion. However, their audience will then take that
information and potentially form their own opinions, which typically aligns
with the anchor’s because it is what’s been presented towards them. This is
obvious with Amy’s self-titled best friend, Noelle Hawthorne who is the target
audience of Ellen’s show (who also makes a guest appearance on the show later
on in the film), and is convinced that Nick is responsible for the
disappearance of Amy. The character Ellen
Abbott is also a parody of Nancy Grace both physically and mentally.
To
briefly summarize Nancy Grace, her website describes her as “An outspoken,
tireless advocate for victims' rights and one of television's most respected
legal analysts” (Grace, 2012). However, Nancy also has a reputation for her
aggressive interviewing that some would call a live interrogation. David Carr
describes Nancy Grace’s show as “presumption of innocence has found a willful
enemy in the former prosecutor turned broadcast judge-and-jury”. Carr
goes on to list her series of misfires on the show, including an incident where
she interviewed Melinda Duckett about her missing 2-year-old (Carr, 2011). During
the interview, Nancy forcefully pressed her questions towards Ms. Duckett,
implying that due to the mother’s lack of information she seemed suspicious.
The next day after the interview was taped, Ms. Duckett committed suicide, and
Nancy’s producers still ran the interview. Nancy ended up settling with
Duckett’s family and paid $200,000 (Lohr, 2012). It would therefore seem that
Nancy’s habits as a reporter seem to include looking at facts and bending them
to fit her conclusions, much like Ellen Abbott in Gone Girl. This can therefore be considerably manipulative, rather
than someone simply projecting her opinions and can thus lead to rash
consequences. In the case of Nick Dunne, not only has he made a poor first
impression, but his persona on national television has also been heavily damaged
due to characters in the media, such as Ellen Abbott, resulting in the manipulation
of what is true, and what is stretched.
Even
the film’s own marketing is manipulative in relation towards its plot. Gone Girl’s marketing was very secretive
in respect towards the plot, which many film critics actually appreciate. Its
trailers show scenes from the film that imply that Nick himself is guilty,
which is a clever tactic to hook audiences that the film is simply a story of
what exactly Amy’s husband did, when in fact it’s the polar opposite. How
humorous is it then that a film about a variety of subjects, be it
relationships, or in this case, media bias, uses that bias to sell itself
towards potential film goers. Clearly the results were successful, as the film
has a box office of $369.3 million, being Fincher’s most successful film (McClintock).
The lesson from this is that if you present something a certain way that peeks
the public’s interest, people will follow. The film’s trailers almost act as
clues rather than a run-down of the film. Even if you were to re-watch the
trailer for Gone Girl, it still hides
a major turning point of the film.
Towards
the one-hour mark of the film, a big plot twist in Gone Girl is delivered, which is that Amy is not only alive and
well, but she herself laid the foundation to destroy Nick’s life. This is given
to us in a scene many called the “Cool Girl Monologue”. This scene shows us how
Amy did it, from faking her pregnancy by befriending a “local idiot” to
eventually fake her own pregnancy on her medical record, and even going as far
as bleeding herself to leave blood residue on the kitchen floor for the cops to
find. Essentially, Amy has laid out several booby traps for Nick, the police,
and ultimately the media to follow. Nick eventually realizes this, turning to
his sister and the lawyer featured on Ellen Abbott’s news show, Tanner Bolt to
combat Amy’s plan and ultimately prove his innocence. The vessel that is
carrying Amy’s manipulative narrative is the media, which will therefore
ultimately build the basis of bias against Nick. Looking into Amy as a person,
clearly there is some sort of personality disorder based on her actions.
“However, it is a common view among therapists that
patients with BPD often use manipulation
in order to achieve their own goals. This is confirmed by the study of Gallop & Lancee, which
demonstrated that as many as 90% of nurses stated that they associated BPD patients with manipulation. Other
research has also confirmed the conviction
of specialists that there is a strong link between the BPD personality and manipulation” (Mandal, Kocur).
They further continue that people who suffer from BPD
disorders also have an unclear image of who they are. Revisiting the “Cool Girl
Monologue”, Amy says that when she first met Nick, she knew he wanted the “cool
girl” who she basically describes a person she has no desire to be, but becomes
that person to please others, in this case Nick. In a scene where Nick visits
one of Amy’s former partners, Tommy O’Hara was a victim of Amy’s persona. Tommy
had a relationship with Amy which ended with her accusing Tommy of first degree
felony rape. The movie’s stance on Tommy’s innocence is made when Nick asks
“Did you do it?” followed by Tommy’s instant response “Did you?”. When Nick
asks for Tommy’s story, he says they met at a party and “instantly click”,
describing her as a perfect match. Amy eventually attempts to mold Tommy to be
her ideal partner. Tommy realized this, saying it was “too much”. Amy bought
him ties frequently, and says they had arguments over the subject. Tommy then
attempts to leave this relationship, distancing himself from Amy. Then one
night, Tommy says she came over with liquor and a record from one of his
favorite bands, where Amy soon initiated sexual activity. To be precise, Amy
wanted rough intercourse. The next day Tommy sees that there’s two officers in
his home, and Amy has “wounds that are consistent with rape”, where it appeared
that Tommy tied Amy up the bed. Amy’s message to Tommy becomes clear when the
police discover that the ropes used to tie Amy up were the ties Amy bought for
him, which he wouldn’t wear. In these three examples, the situation comes out
to be either Amy is attempting to mold herself to fit someone’s expectations or
the opposite. When you combine this trait with Amy’s intelligence you have a
dangerous person. Lauren Duca had a sit down with psychiatrist Dr. Paul Puri
who also agrees that Amy has some sort of personality disorder, saying “It seems like Amy has definite aspects of that in terms
of her conscience” (Duca, 2014). Dr. Paul Puri also looks at how Amy throughout
the movie is willing to harm herself to build a false narrative. Another
example proving Amy’s extreme methods exists in the film. Desi Collins is
another former romantic partner of Amy. She accidently meets Desi while
on the run. Seeing this as an opportunity, she accepts him literally with open
arms, and Desi keeps her as a guest in his getaway lodge. One night, Amy sees
Nick’s interview at Desi’s lodge and is won over by him. To get herself back
home, she subdues Desi into sex. She then slices his throat, which yet again
lays down the foundation that would place herself as a victim in the eyes of
the media. This also solves the problem of Amy where she technically wasn’t
pregnant until now. She returns home covered in Desi’s blood, fainting as Nick
holds her.
Now that the public knows Amy is
alive, and that Nick is not responsible in any way for her disappearance, the
media again follows what Amy wants them to see: a happy reunion. While the
media eventually stops harassing Nick, this was only because Amy allowed Nick
to be free of the media frenzy. This ultimately shows how easy it is to use the
media as a tool to destroy someone’s life. Amy clearly had a well thought out
plan to have Nick put in for what would have been her faked murder. Even when
Amy’s plans backfire, she manages to adapt and continue to manipulate the
media. While it is true that Amy purposefully laid out this false narrative for
the media to follow, Gone Girl is
nevertheless an example of what can happen when the media conveys
misinformation.
Works Cited
"About - Nancy." Nancy
Grace. (2012)
http://www.nancygrace.com/about.html
Carr, David. "TV Justice
Thrives on Fear." The New York Times
(May 22, 2011):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/business/media/23carr.html
Duca, Lauren. "A Psychiatrist
Weighs In On Amy & Nick In 'Gone Girl'" The Huffington Post (Oct.
3 2014)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/03/amy-gone-girl- psychiatrist_n_5922842.html
Kashdan, Jason. "Ben Affleck on
"Gone Girl" Wife Jennifer Garner and Career." CBS Interactive
(Jan. 01 2015)
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/ben-affleck-on-gone-girl-wife-jennifer-garner-and-career/
Lohr, David. "Toni Medrano,
Dubbed 'Vodka Mom' By Nancy Grace, Committed Suicide, Police Say." The
Huffington Post (July 11 2012) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/toni-medrano-vodka-mom_n_1665792.html
Mandal, Eugenia, and
Dagna Kocur. "Psychological Masculinity, Femininity and Tactics of Manipulation in Patients with
Borderline Personality Disorder." Archives
of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy 15.1
(2013): 45-53
http://blc-lrc.bluegrass.kctcs.edu:2233/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=37ad3997-28a3- 4f21-b0b6-991ecdb64866%40sessionmgr4008&vid=1&hid=4213
McClintock, Pamela. "Box Office
Milestone: 'Gone Girl' Sets U.S. Record for David Fincher." The Hollywood Reporter, 1 Nov. 2014. Web. 20
Sept. 2016. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-milestone-gone-girl-745580
Petten, Vanessa Van. "5 Ways To
Make a Killer First Impression." Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 20 Sept. 2016.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/yec/2011/11/02/5-ways-to-make-a-killer-first- impression/#55104eac10ce
