海角大神

Anyone who read the novel 鈥淕one Girl鈥� by Gillian Flynn can tell you the story lingers in your head long after you put down the novel and that portraying the nuances of the book鈥檚 characters, Nick and Amy Dunne, will be no easy task for the actors who take it on.聽

But director David Fincher seems to have captured the same haunting mood in the upcoming movie adaptation of Flynn鈥檚 book (which she adapted for the screen) and both Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike are earning critical praise for their performances as Nick and Amy. The movie, which will be released on Oct. 3, has received many early rave reviews.

鈥淕one鈥� currently holds a score of 81 out of 100 on the review aggregator website and critic Justin Chang called it 鈥渁n exceptional pairing of filmmaker and material.鈥� (Fincher also directed the first two episodes of the Netflix series 鈥淗ouse of Cards,鈥� the 2011 movie 鈥淭he Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,鈥� and the 2010 movie 鈥淭he Social Network,鈥� among other work.)聽

鈥淒irector David Fincher and stars Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck are at the top of their game in this mesmerizing adaptation of Gillian Flynn's novel,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淸It鈥檚 an] intricate and richly satisfying adaptation鈥� Surgically precise, grimly funny and entirely mesmerizing鈥� outstanding performances from聽聽and a revelatory聽.鈥澛�

Kenneth Turan of the was similarly wowed.

鈥淪uperbly cast from the two at the top to the smallest speaking parts, impeccably directed by Fincher and crafted by his regular team to within an inch of its life, 鈥楪one Girl鈥� shows the remarkable things that can happen when filmmaker and material are this well matched,鈥� he wrote. 鈥淪ticking closely to Flynn's dazzlingly complex plot and its cascade of surprises鈥� 鈥楪one Girl鈥� is the kind of portrait of a marriage that might have resulted if Alfred Hitchcock had watched a lot of Ingmar Bergman before getting down to work鈥� Affleck, who's had his own personal deer-in-the-headlights moments, gets Nick's combination of arrogance and likability exactly right, and Pike鈥� is completely his equal in a performance that defies expectations at every turn鈥� 鈥楪one Girl鈥檚 twisty plot wouldn't be as effective as it is if the casting of all the subsidiary characters weren't as good as the leads聽and Laray Mayfield, who has cast Fincher's films since 1999's 'Fight Club,' has done a superb job.鈥�

And Todd McCarthy of the called the film 鈥渟harply made, perfectly cast and unfailingly absorbing,鈥� though he wrote that 鈥渋t leaves you with a quietly lingering feeling of: 鈥業s that all there is?鈥欌��

鈥淕one Girl show[s Fincher] working in a somewhat pulpier, more popular vein that, frankly, needs him more than he needs it,鈥� McCarthy wrote. 鈥淎ffleck, who has never been more ideally cast, delivers a beautiful balancing act of a performance鈥� Pike鈥� is powerful and commanding鈥� Pike looks to have immersed herself in this鈥� character, and the results are impressive鈥� Great pleasures are to be found among the wonderfully chosen supporting players."

reviewer Manohla Dargis was one reviewer who felt less positively toward the movie, writing that 鈥淢r. Affleck [gives a] supple, sympathetic performance鈥� The Nick here, like so many noir heroes, is simply, too simply, a decent, deflated, ordinary sap with serious woman problems. The same is true of this movie. At its strongest, 鈥楪one Girl鈥� plays like a queasily, at times gleefully, funny horror movie about a modern marriage, one that has disintegrated partly because of spiraling downward mobility and lost privilege鈥� Yet, as sometimes happens in Mr. Fincher鈥檚 work, dread descends like winter shadows, darkening the movie鈥檚 tone and visuals until it鈥檚 snuffed out all the light, air and nuance.鈥�