Amy Dunne disappears on her 5th wedding anniversary, and her husband Nick becomes the prime suspect. Then her diary and the investigation reveal that neither of them is the person the other believed. David Fincher uses the marriage thriller to take apart the way people perform gender, love and innocence for the media.
Gone Girl is a 2014 thriller, drama and mystery film directed by David Fincher. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (4 narrative and 1 psychology), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Handmaiden uses several of the same techniques.
Telling the story through a character you can't trust, because they are lying, mentally unwell or fooling themselves. At some point, you have to rethink what you were told.
How this film uses it
Amy's diary is the film's main first-person narration. It turns out to be a fake document she built to frame Nick. Every entry you took as a private confession was a performance aimed at the police who would later investigate. This narrator can't be trusted, and she is not fooling herself. She is deceiving you on purpose and with a plan.
Where to see it
The reveal that Amy made up her diary. The warm, confessional voiceover turns into cold, methodical calculation. Every earlier entry is now a crime scene.
Telling the story through diaries or accounts that characters read or tell about each other, sometimes one inside another. Each writer has their own memory, bias and motives, so no version is fully reliable.
How this film uses it
The film runs on 2 first-person accounts you can't trust. One is Nick's investigation in the present and the other is Amy's diary of the past. Each is shaped by what its author wants. The layered accounts make the film's point about marriage. It is 2 people living inside stories they have written about each other and mistaken for the truth.
Where to see it
The parallel cutting between Nick's investigation and Amy's diary. The film lays out both accounts side by side. Only later do you find out that neither can be trusted.
Holding back a key piece of information for a large part of the film, then revealing it in 1 moment. Everything you already watched now means something different.
How this film uses it
At the film's midpoint, Amy is revealed to be alive and to have planned her own disappearance. The reveal changes how you read the entire first half. Every trace of evidence, every diary entry and every moment of Nick's guilt now looks like theater staged by Amy. Fincher places the long reveal at the halfway mark. That gives him an entirely new film to build on top of the first one.
Where to see it
Amy's midpoint reveal. The camera finds her alive, driving away from the life she just faked her way out of. Looking back, you rebuild the first half of the film as a show she produced.
Cutting back and forth between 2 timelines, often past and present. Each one helps explain the other as the film goes on.
How this film uses it
Fincher cuts between Amy's diary of the past and Nick's investigation in the present. The rhythm of the cutting controls what you know and when you know it. The 2 timelines make the film's point. Nick and Amy have always been living in different versions of their marriage. When the timelines finally meet, the result is a catastrophe.
Where to see it
The intercutting between Amy's diary entries and Nick's police interrogations. Past and present each reveal what the other hides. The parallel structure builds until both of them are exposed.
Pairing the main character with a second character who mirrors them. The double shows what the hero wants, fears or secretly is.
How this film uses it
Nick and Amy are mirror images of each other. Both perform versions of themselves for each other and for the public. What is frightening in the film is how alike they are. Nick performs innocence for the cameras and Amy performs victimhood for the investigators. Their marriage is 2 performers who have finally stopped pretending that they aren't performing.
Where to see it
The film's final scene. Nick and Amy go back to the marriage and the performance starts up again. It confirms that being each other's double is their permanent condition.
Questions
Gone Girl: quick answers
What filmmaking techniques does Gone Girl use?
CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Gone Girl (2014): Unreliable Narrator, Nested Unreliable Diaries, The Long Reveal, Parallel Chronology and Psychological Doubling.
Who directed Gone Girl?
David Fincher directed Gone Girl, released in 2014. CineCode also covers Alien³ (1992), Se7en (1995), The Game (1997), Fight Club (1999), Panic Room (2002), Zodiac (2007).
What films are similar to Gone Girl?
Films that share techniques with Gone Girl include The Handmaiden (2016), Amadeus (1984), Chinatown (1974), Rebecca (1940).
