GONE GIRL (2014)

Gone Girl is, hands down, one of the most intricate, visceral, and under-your-skin unsettling films you may see in some time.  Based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, who also wrote the screenplay (and deserves an Oscar nom for it), the film tells the story of a marriage - between small-town boy Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), who moves to New York City and meets big-city girl Amy (Rosamund Pike) - and the same dissolution of that marriage when the couple, both victims of the economy, need to relocate back to Nick's hometown, jobless and with no prospects.  And when Amy disappears one July morning, on their fifth anniversary, the cops finding what appears to be staged evidence of her kidnapping only throws suspicion onto Nick as the culprit - a situation made worse when it seems more and more like Nick isn't so upset she's missing.  And that's only the first hour, when the film takes a shocking u-turn and then it's "hold onto your seatbelts" for the rest, in this moody, dark, unpleasant but exquisite thriller sure to be remembered at Oscar-time. (rated R)  A

GONE GIRL trailer