When I think about the narration in Gillian Flynn’s 2012 thriller novel “Gone Girl”, I float off into a trance.  I have to pull myself back to reality.  The story is narration, narration that I enjoy way too much.  There are action scenes, but the real thrill is waiting on the thoughts coming from our twisted protagonists,  Nick and Amy.  Or, are they antagonists?  I must confess, I find the horrifically clean ending to be a guilty pleasure.  But, maybe I am morally superior to the characters. They hate their final situation because they want out.  I love their final situation because it displays how matrimony can jarringly turn on its head.  Any reader says, “My marriage isn’t that bad.”  But, the real terror in this mystery story is that any untended marriage could could end like the Dunne’s.  There is one crack in this thriller’s iron-clad plot.  In the brown house scene, why didn’t the cops ever trace the phone number the alarm call was made to?

David Fincher’s film adaptation of “Gone Girl” perfectly tells the story .  Rosamund Pike’s smile in the ER is Anthony-Hopkin-level creepiness.  Like many film adaptations, the characters where distilled to one characteristic.  Nick is blundering.  I wish Fincher had distilled Nick down to menacing, but Affleck would not have fit the part.  Amy’s parents are snobs.  Gosh is betrayed.  Detective Boney is suspicious.  Unfortunately, the film did not have time to flesh out the overt feminist subtext of the novel.  We only hear Nick’s father cursing women.  We don’t hear Nick’s inner turmoil and guilt over how he himself views women.  The biggest blunder of the film was casting Neil Patrick Harris as Desi.  He does a decent job of being creepy until the line, “Octopus and scrabble?”  From then on his character comes off as pitiable instead of loath-able.

I am torn on whether I enjoy the book or the film more.  The trouble is the story transcends the medium.  Nick and Amy’s train wreck of a relationship would be jaw dropping if it was portrayed with balloon animals.  The book fills in more of the details of the how and why. “He did that to her!?  She did that to him?!”  However the film dishes out the plot faster.  There is something impressive about watching things get that twisted in under three hours.  In the end, I side with the novel.  It came first.  It has hall of fame level narration.  It is amazing.