Gone Girl

When a Missouri wife (Rosamund Pike) mysteriously disappears on the morning of her fifth wedding anniversary, police suspect foul play—and her husband (Ben Affleck) soon falls under suspicion. Director David Fincher and writer Gillian Flynn (adapting her novel) flip back and forth between the husband's present-time doings and the wife's diary entries recounting their courtship and marriage, raising questions and increasing our sense of dread as they peel away layers, like pulling moldy leaves from an artichoke that is rotting from the inside out. Flynn's book was a compulsive read, and this is the movie equivalent. The whole cast is strong, but Pike stands out in the kind of role that makes stars and, with luck, wins Oscars. In fact, the whole movie is blatant, and pretty credible, Oscar bait.