SCREEN: Gone Girl - Potential Oscar Nominee for Best Picture

Adapted from the novel of the same name by Gillian Flynn and directed by David Fincher, Gone Girl tells the story of Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) and how her disappearance affects the lives of the people around her, particularly the life of her husband, Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck). Eventually accused of murdering his wife, Nick is forced to defend himself against intense scrutiny with only his sister Margo (Carrie Coon) and lawyer Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry) by his side.
If for acting performances alone, Fincher’s Gone Girl deserves an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. It is sure to garner a nomination for Best Actress for Pike’s spectacular portrayal of a relocated wife possibly suffering at the hands of her good-guy husband Nick. Even Affleck’s Nick proves to be a pretty stellar character as he juggles his feelings about his wife’s disappearance with the media’s contradictory portrayals of him.
As great as the performances are in the film, the story too will contribute to its inevitable nomination for an Oscar. The viewer follows a seemingly idyllic couple as their relationship crumbles and, as the viewer begins to make assumptions about Amy's disappearance and who to hold responsible, the film takes an incredibly unexpected turn, leaving the viewer to wonder who is truly good and evil in Gone Girl but ultimately never getting an answer.
Fincher's direction is not something to be ignored either.The usual dark tone and cool atmosphere that viewers have come to associate with Fincher's visual style in earlier films like Fight Club and The Social Network is very much present in Gone Girl and is responsible for much of the tension between its characters, creating a degree of urgency in the story itself. Surely all these elements of good filmmaking will get Gone Girl noticed by the Academy and will lead to the film getting nominated for Best Picture at the 2015 Academy Awards.