Released in October of 2014, “Gone Girl” has served as the ultimate female rage movie for the past decade. Its ability to capture the complexity of a performative marriage and the subconscious of two narcissists makes it an unforgettable movie experience. 

The movie centers around Nick and Amy Dunne and their tumultuous marriage. Like all couples, they start off in the honeymoon stage where they both do everything they can to impress the other and create the picture perfect marriage of their dreams. But all fantasies must end. 

After an economic recession, the Dunne’s both lose their jobs and leave NYC to move to suburban Missouri to take care of Nick’s sick mother. After Nick’s mom dies, they both revert back to their original forms and their marriage loses love and gains resentment. Eventually, they both start to hate each other and Nick ends up cheating on Amy with one of his college students. After finding out about Nick’s affair, Amy spends a year planning out her own disappearance with the intention of framing Nick for her supposed murder. When Amy is declared missing, Nick has to do everything he can to put on his good guy persona for the cameras, while the entire country believes he’s liable for Amy’s murder. 

Meanwhile, Amy is suffering from a hell of her own creation. She gets robbed at the trailer park she’s living in and ultimately has to move into the home of an obsessive ex-boyfriend to avoid being caught. After Nick delivers a stellar performance on national television professing his love for Amy, Amy realizes she can step back into their marriage and finally get the perfect version of Nick she spent so long meticulously crafting. So, Amy kills her ex-boyfriend, frames him for abuse and returns back to Nick. Nick is obviously shaken by the entire plot but Amy gets pregnant and ropes him into staying with her because the alternative is to be nationally shunned. In the end, Amy gets everything she wants and the Dunnes are back in their performative marriage that neither can escape. 

I genuinely love this movie and everything it stands for. I love the stellar acting from both Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. I love the refreshing take on modern marriage and how love cannot be conditional or else it won’t last. The contrasting spheres of narcissism seen through the two protagonists is something current film makers can only dream to reinvent. The writing is incredibly well thought out and provides the perfect foundation for the storyline. 

But one of my absolute favorite things about this movie is Amy’s well-known “cool-girl” monologue, which is undoubtedly one of the most well-written pieces of inner dialogue in film. Amy’s whole shtick throughout this movie is that she’s a cool girl, not the obsessive girlfriend or naggy wife. She sells herself to Nick through her easy-going, fun and easy act. Nick buys this act as he doesn’t want a difficult woman, he simply wants a girl he can have fun with and who makes him feel like he’s the best person in the world. But this act is what made the relationship so dysfunctional in the first place. The constant acting, thought out choices and curated performances, made the Dunne relationship a fragile facade that falls the second either protagonist goes through difficulty. 

This entire relationship is based on outside perception not on genuine connection, which is why it becomes easy to see through both characters’ gimmicks. Amy has always needed to be perfect. She needed to be the “Amazing Amy” her parents made her out to be in their novels. She’s also never experienced unconditional love. She was only ever appreciated when she was doing everything right, so she internalized this feeling and brought it to her marriage.

On the other hand, Nick knew he was shooting way above his league by marrying Amy. He originally loved the idea of marrying a woman who was better than him, but soon he started to detest her accomplishments and reverted back to the inconsiderate, lazy and careless man he truly is. 

Both of these people are undoubtedly narcissists who entered a marriage believing it would make them look good. But when there isn’t genuine love in a marriage, all attempts to seem “perfect” will end in disaster, which is exactly what happened in the Dunne marriage. Even though they stay together in the end, neither truly loves the other, they only love the idea of each other and the revamped relationship they present to the public. 

This entire story is about perception told through the marriage of two deeply narcissistic individuals. It makes an excellent commentary on shallow marriages of the present and will be deeply ingrained in my psyche for its stellar cinematography, acting and writing. “Gone Girl” is a one of a kind movie that deserves its laurels now and forever. 

On this blog, members of the Carmel High School chapter of the Quill and Scroll International Honorary Society for High School Journalists (and the occasional guest writer) produce curations of all facets of popular culture, from TV shows to music to novels to technology. We hope our readers always leave with something new to muse over. Click here to read more from MUSE.