Director: David Fincher
Year Released: 2014
Rating: 3.0
An icy, 21st century rethink of Fatal Attraction. A teacher/writer (Ben Affleck) moves with his wife (Rosamund Pike) back to his home state of Missouri where he helps with his ailing father - one day the wife ends up missing, strange clues regarding her disappearance are everywhere and the authorities become suspicious of the husband. What follows is eerie, methodical and clinically shot (Fincher's forte) as Pike's psychopath goes to unfathomable lengths to get revenge on the philandering, emotionally distant Affleck, who is carrying on an affair with a student (Emily Ratajkowski). As intense as Pike is - not to mention the excellent Carrie Coon as Affleck's sole source of comfort (Pike's exact opposite, in a sense) - I do feel the movie focuses more on her methods instead of her mindset, which is reduced to (apparently) profound feelings of inadequacy due to being unable to compete with a fictionalized cartoon character named "Amazing Amy" that her mother created (Affleck, on the other hand, comes across as an unhappy dope). The ending is perhaps the most disturbing aspect to it: when all is said and done, he's stuck in a tragic situation (be careful who you marry).
