Women Rising – A Pathetic Try?

A movie Review of David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl’

Bebelyn S. Alinsonorin

“As soon as they begin to be your equals, they will have become your superiors.”
This was one of those resistant statements of Marcus Porcius Cato in the 3rd century
BCE where organized protest against women’s rights was prevalent. However, after
years of fighting for it, women finally gained the equality they have believed to be for
them; but, while women are in the peak of this victorious solidarity, David Fincher,
through his movie ‘Gone Girl’, blows individuals’ minds as he presumably wants to
prove that the rise of women is just a pathetic try through her top 6 women
characters.

1) ‘Amy Dunne’ (Rosamund Pike) perfectly portrays the role of a fighter wife. A
wife that doesn’t want a defeat, a wife who fights for a marriage, and a wife
who believes that she can fix whatever is broken. She literally is capable of
persuading (which can also mean fooling) everyone around her to believe in
her creative (foolish) ideas and story. Just when she thinks she won the battle
and hailed as the heroine in her narcissistic epic, her husband has proven her
wrong and because of her pathetic try to rise as a woman, she is bound to
bear the painful and pathetic marriage EVERYDAY!

2) ‘Detective Rhonda Boney’ (Kim Dickens) on the other hand, also portrays as
the voice for “oppressed” women. She successfully played the role of a witty
detective and her (man) partner in the Amy’s case is actually reliant in her
judgment and brilliance. She’s almost even able to prove that ‘Nick’ (Ben
Affleck) is actually guilty of the murder of his own wife. Just when she thinks
of herself to be a competitive detective by arresting ‘Nick’ (Ben Affleck), a
fellow woman, the one she want to grant justice to shows up to prove her
stupid of doing all the investigations and that ‘Nick’ (Ben Affleck), a man, won
the case. “Your expertise in your chosen field won’t bring a man down!”

3) ‘Margo Dunne’ (Carrie Coon), was ‘Nick’s’ dependable twin sister whose
character conveys that women are dependable that according to her, she is
with ‘Nick’ even before they were born. Her character shouts out that men will
be gone crazy if they won’t have women working alongside them in their
(men) challenges. Yet, in the end, she was left all alone after begging her twin
brother to leave her wife.

4) ‘Marybeth Elliot’ (Lisa Banes) is a kind of woman who wants to prove that her
initiative is the most effective way in finding their one-and-only-amazing-Amy.
A woman who takes the lead in the family and acts as superior to her
 husband. As a result, her initiative has been proven to be a waste at all. Her
strategy in finding her not-so-amazing-Amy won’t work for her daughter’s
stupidity.

5) ‘Noelle Hawthorne’ (Casey Wilson) thought that she would be awarded as the
‘most genuine friend’ of the year by trying to convince people how grave
‘Nick’s’ (Ben Affleck) violation was against his child-bearing wife as per Amy’s
compelling ‘homemade tragedy’. Yet, her cry for justice for both the mother
and the child is an unsuccessful try.

6) ‘Andie Fitzgerald’ (Emily Ratajkowski), did everything despite her being

innocent (compared to ‘Nick) due to the brimming hope that she would be
chosen in the end but she was left ‘unchosen’ right before their affair ends.

Though this movie has the potential to trigger some sort of gender-based conflicts
and arguments which might want the audience hate David Fincher, this movie also
bears the reminder to women that as they continue to strengthen their rights and
privileges, they should bear in their minds that they are working for equality and not
for superiority.

Thus, while feminism in this film conveys women empowerment- that is women are
actually capable of doing something extraordinary and change the wrong notion that
women are just subjects of oppression, it also gives a gross portrayal of being an
empowered woman. Amy’s being a psychopath killer doesn’t necessarily relate to
being an empowered woman.

To have a fuller look on this aforementioned gender-based issue, one must watch
the movie him/herself.