I thought I was clever figuring out the major twist of Gone Girl before I saw it, so I didn't bother with it until today only to discover the bigger twist is it's a black comedy and has a bucket-load of dark humour and irony for something marketed as a murder mystery. I thought this was going to be too pedestrian a story for Fincher to take on but he made the whole thing more interesting. Dialogue wise I wasn't buying it initially but I settled into it and stuck around long enough to see it all play out.
Phantom Thread also threw me for a fucking loop. I was expecting something fairly basic by way of plot lines, and while the false endings were irritating, I couldn't say I saw the ultimate ending coming. Again, narrative wise you could call it a kind of murder mystery, the love interest setting up her story to another party (who could be a detective or a journalist) that explores Daniel Day Lewis's character and her intense obsession with him that he reciprocates eventually in the most bizarre sense, the pivotal moment suggesting murder is genuinely afoot. Then the central characters take toxic to the most literal level.
But both narratives portray marriages as foundations for hatred, resentment and co-dependence that almost can't function without these negative aspects, suggesting you're destined to live in a sham in abject misery hating one another. Or worse, lashing out or using means of torture or manipulation to keep the other person with you. I feel like whoever wrote Gone Girl had such a cynical view of men, women and marriage. The amount of divorces and cynicism around marriage make these narratives more believable and depressing as fuck. Great way to sell the package to millennials. You're already telling young girls abusive boyfriends are hot and the better option and negging is totally cool, now let's suggest you marry a guy you'll hate the fuck out of but be so obsessed with you'll refuse to let him go.
I found both movies tended to drag out despite having very short, succinct scenes. Once you've cottoned on to Gone Girl's Amy, you're only a third of the way in. You pick a side eventually, the only thing I found a bit hokey was the conceit that makes Amy famous and more attractive to the public was contrived and not realistic at all; she could've been famous for any number of reasons beside the writer trying to be original. (Six Feet Under featured a similar story line with Brenda and Billy being the inspiration behind two children in a story book written by their psychologist mother so it's not that an original idea). You don't really get a sense of why Amy's become unhinged at all, and it's rather cynical towards women as well, I can see why some feminists would hate this portrayal, not that it isn't done effectively. You find Amy sort of distasteful even while she's meant to look innocent. You don't end up hating Nick even with his egregious flaws. You don't think he deserves what he eventually gets. But a huge amount of their tensions are the most pedestrian: he gets surly and childish and she refuses to become the nag he sees her as. I think I missed what makes her so manipulative ultimately.
The couple in Phantom Thread were more appalling in their dynamic. You despise Reynolds and find Alma's affection confounding, but when she grates on him you can appreciate his reaction to a point. Her determination to keep him seems more volatile than his temper when cornered. He has some kind of undiagnosed behavioural issue and Alma is quite young and naive to begin with, growing up under his influence. But his brand of negging is on a whole other level. His suggestion he can "give her bigger breasts and take them away" purely from the way he designs his dresses would make most women slap him senseless. His charm is hardly worth these moments of arrogance, but Alma refuses to abandon him.
Interestingly, both stories feature a close sister character, a twin in Nick's case and an older sister and manager in Reynolds', the latter doing far more to sabotage Reynold's relationships than Nick's. Both sisters are depicted as being a touch too close to their brothers, however Alma seems to fall into some degree of favour with Reynold's sister ultimately; she proves herself a worthy companion despite the two women fighting over Reynold's disposition. And both male leads have close relationships with their mothers and are severely fractured by the deaths of these matriarchal figures. In Reynolds' case, no other woman can compare.
So walking into both these films my expectations were well and truly subverted. I can't say I'd watch either again but both are unforgettable and unique in their own demented, sad and dark ways. Reflecting on them both now I've only just seen how many similarities they have for being quite different types of films.
I have to add now I've had time to digest Gone Girl that it's actually ludicrously comical the lengths Amy goes to as part of her revenge, and her history of incriminating men also seems so overblown and fantastical, it falls so much into romance revenge fantasy it could be considered a type of pornography for jilted housewives. Nothing of Nick's persona or actions make him even remotely worthy of that amount of effort. That there has to be that amount of blood to ruin him or that much to win him back. He's so typical and unremarkable and cookie-cutter as a character and she's romanticised their courtship so excessively. Or she was convinced they'd be an exception to some societal rule that all marriages are hard work and fraught with misery and conflict. And when that fails, over something so typical as them losing their jobs, you decide to go overboard when he takes a typical stance of infidelity. And you'll fabricate some abusiveness too when you could just fucking leave the guy. But no. Apparently this schmuck is worth you bleeding yourself. Reading a bunch of books and watching crime documentaries apparently makes you qualified to let your own blood with the precision of a registered nurse and adept at faking a crime scene. And able to craftily steal a pregnant woman's urine. This had to have been satirical. It plays the media as idiots and shallow. It was such a commentary the characters had no real depth besides the sister, and even then, you know nothing of her life beyond she's devoted to Nick. It's a black comedy. Don't call it a drama, it's too ironic for that.
But the fact it illustrates that having rough consensual sex that could result in vaginal tearing and scratching consistent with rape muddies that argument so dangerously you could imagine it being used as an argument against someone in reality. Which is why that issue has become so contentious and makes victims' arguments less valid. Like we need that level of internalised misogyny where dumb men can use that as a defence "she wanted it rough" and dumb women can use it as an attack "I said no but he did it anyway". Don't put those ideas in their heads.
