The Most Heart-Thumping R-Rated Thriller Of All Time Just Landed On Netflix

By TeeJay Small
| Updated 1 hour ago

If psychological thrillers are your game, you owe it to yourself to watch the 2014 smash-hit film Gone Girl. Actually, scratch that, you should watch Gone Girl even if psychological thrillers are your least favorite thing in the world. This film, which adapts the Gillian Flynn novel of the same name, is one of those movies that will make you stare on in horror as your jaw hits the floor, leaving you unable to look away. For a time, the only way to catch Gone Girl was with a physical copy or a digital rental, but it finally just landed on Netflix, so it should jump to the top of your watch-list immediately.

Gone Girl was adapted for the screen by Gillian Flynn and directed by auteur filmmaker David Fincher. In case you’re not up on your iconic filmmakers, Fincher is responsible for such classics as Fight Club, Zodiac, and The Social Network. He’s also currently working on helming the Quentin Tarantino-penned Adventures of Cliff Booth as well as Squid Game: America for Netflix.

A Media-Friendly Turn For The Worse

The film centers on the strained marriage of teacher Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) and his wife, Amy (Rosamund Pike). Amy is locally famous for being her parents’ muse in a series of children’s books, so it makes massive headlines when she suddenly disappears without a trace. Police investigators and media journalists swarm the Dunne home, while the general public reacts with disgust at Nick’s apathetic response. Before long, this woman’s disappearance is a national news story, reminiscent of many true crime cases of missing women slain by their romantic partners.

Through a series of flashbacks, memory sequences, and non-linear storytelling, we get glimpses of Nick and Amy’s marriage. We see their whirlwind romance and honeymoon phase, as well as their slow decline into marital malaise. We cringe as the pair lose their jobs and are forced to move in with Nick’s family, and recoil as we learn that Nick has been engaging in an affair with a student. Meanwhile, a blood sample found in the Dunne household reveals that a struggle took place, and that Amy has recently become pregnant.

Essential Viewing For Any Thriller Fan

I won’t give away too much of the mystery here, because you should really go into this one as blind as possible. But, suffice is to say, the evidence keeps mounting that Nick is responsible, even as he and his legal team attempt to drum up support from the public and prove his innocence. Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike offer tour de force performances as Nick and Amy, while the rest of the cast is expertly complimented by Neil Patrick Harris, Carrie Coon, and Tyler Perry. This is the movie that convinced me Tyler Perry has the same unexpected dramatic acting chops as Adam Sandler, when he’s not busy throwing on a dress and making fart noises to the camera.

I recall enjoying this movie when it first came out, but revisiting it today put it on another level for me. In a world dominated by true crime stories, Gone Girl is the perfect modern mystery, highlighting the role that the media, the public, and the police play in shaping narratives. If you’ve got a Netflix subscription, be sure to pull up Gone Girl today. Just don’t make the mistake of putting it on during a first date … or even a fifth anniversary celebration with your spouse.