Gone Girl

I was originally going to post about this film when I saw it; however, I did not complete that post, so I figured I might as well share my thoughts now.

Overall, Gone Girl is an interesting film, within the context of both this class and another rhetoric course I am in, Rhetoric of Film: Gothic Horror.

With regards to this course, I have been intrigued with the notion of the liars paradox: that is, when you someone is telling the truth, yet you think they are lying. Because you think they are lying (when in fact they are telling the truth), you become the liar in search for truth.

This is a major premise of the film because a lot of people suspect Nick of killing his wife; however, it is actually his wife Amy who has framed him. She is a writer, famous for her children's stories. The film is literally a movie version of a fictional narrative that is about fiction, a liar. Just like all the stories in this course, it is this never ending cycle of fiction and the search for truth.

In fact, this film really complicates romantic relationships. To be honest, if I saw this movie with my significant other I'd feel really strange because it makes you question the inherent Truth & idea that you can completely know someone when you're in a romantic relationships with them.

The film distorts this notion to the point that Amy frames Nick; Nick realizes this that he's been framed and confronts her. By the end of the film, Nick is still bound to Amy for many reasons but it is a distortion of the idealized form of romance that is embedded within American narratives.

The film asks questions and builds upon cultural anxieties about romance: can you ever fully and truly know your lover? Do you love the person for what you've project them to be or who they truly are?

In an odd way, the ending of the film critiques the romanticized ideal of unconditional love. In contemporary culture, we believe unconditional love to be an unchanging love. But reality is, unconditional love requires you to love someone despite their faults, the way they change as a person, and more than anything - their lies. Because if all humans are liars (if it is inherent in the performative and means of socialization), then we are bound to confront this notion of truth and lies at some point. So unconditional love means to love despite the lies and that you will never truly 'know' someone, even the person you bound yourself to for eternity.