Gone To-day, Gone To-morrow

Sometimes shallow people can also be stupid. When stupid and shallow people get bored, they do trashy, ridiculous and improbable things, according to 2014's Gone Girl, a new noir directed by David Fincher and based on a popular book by Gillian Flynn. It features a decent performance by Ben Affleck and a pretty lousy one by Rosamund Pike as they navigate a world of plot twists and tabloid media satire, a sometimes amusing film but somewhat underwhelming, given its reputation.

I won't spoil any of the plot for you, though I found the big twist in the middle rather predictable. So predictable I doubted I was right in guessing it because it was so obvious I thought it would be kind of lame if they went ahead with it. When it happened, there was something sad about the lameness. I felt sort of bad for the wicked mastermind character. I thought, "That's what you've been doing with your time? Out of all the things you could have been doing, you've been doing this? You poor sod."

There's the beginnings of something fascinating at the end of the film that never gets played out, what two people who've gone all in on superficiality do with each other, how they might find a strange rapport in acknowledging their corresponding emptiness.

There are a number of massive holes in the plot I'll allude to obliquely for those who've seen the film--how would someone get all that stuff to the woodshed without being noticed? How could someone plan on the cops turning up at a certain house at precisely the right time? Why would a hospital treat someone covered with someone else's blood and then send them home still covered in someone else's blood?

I kind of liked the parody of Nancy Grace. There's some insight in the satire of how people watch tabloid crime shows and the way the talking heads argue with each other but for the most part it's a light version of what you might get with the now sadly departed Colbert Report.

As for the mystery, the stuff about marriage, and the crime stuff, you're better off watching Les Diaboliques.

Twitter Sonnet #699

Fat stockings conceal absolute pepper.
Recently added elves have real feelings.
A golden soup deals Kringle's free supper.
The boated archers deck dragon ceilings.
Sleigh bell car alarms pierce the horse track beer.
Rolling eyed reindeer outpace Silver Blaze.
Iron sacks are clanking across the pier.
A candy cane emerged from charcoal haze.
A sugar softly steps in blue eyelid.
An old carved eye is black in rolling ice.
Trolleys of anxious spirits watch avid.
Pin fingers touch holly berries and dice.
Black feathers brush the glimmering garlands.
A false and loose beard veils hollow islands.