David Fincher is a master technician of filmmaking. Gone Girl showcases his ability to use the advances of film technology combined with his artistic design to imagine a narrative that many readers found enthralling on the page of Gillian Flynn's novel. We see the image of a perfect couple (Nick and Amy kissing as they literally cover up the couple behind them--they are the ideal couple, the ones everyone wants to be and we see it in Fincher's imagery), the horror of abuse (Nick throwing Amy against the stairs during their argument about having a child), the media's abuse of power (Nick's stupid smile in front of his wife's missing poster), and how a community comes together to help find one of their own (scenes of townspeople coming the land during the day and at night with flashlights) as well as how they easily turn into a mob against someone (Nick running away during the vigil into the police car). All of these images are used to create a reality that seems to make no sense, who's telling the truth? And this is what the film is about. Fincher breathes it into every frame.
He does this additionally by the palette which he chooses to use in order to tell his story. It's dark, moody, enveloped with shadows where the characters move in and out of them. An example being when Nick is in the bathroom getting ready to go out and in full light, but when he and Amy kiss in the doorway they do so in the darkness of the shadow. This shows us how they move in and out of telling one another the truth. Included in his palette is his composition, specifically where the characters stand. In the same bathroom kissing scene it's important to note Nick and Amy at the doorway. This represents being in an in between state in their relationship, they're neither in the bathroom nor in the bedroom, they're somewhere lost in the midst of the shadow that lies between a certain place.
Fincher is able to with great technical efficiency create the subtlety and nuance necessary to tell this story on screen. We are unsure of who we are rooting for, should we be rooting for anyone, could this be happening in real life...is this me? Because of David Fincher's artistic excellence the story's ideas can dance on the imagination of the audience and bring forth necessary questions and feelings that make one experience the paranoia the character's experience through their journey. The film doesn't idealize marriage, it reveals the insidious horrors that lie beneath an idealized marriage through revealing the realities that these characters actions create, and their inability to face their problems together as they strike off on their own personal voyages to "making everything alright." And that is a nightmare.
