It began with a glance across the room as locked eyes pushed the other guests to the side. An easy bantering that produced chuckles and laughter that cropped up like hot, bursting popcorn soon led to a steaming up of the room. The two of you held a second conversation with your eyes; each of you feeling you found that special person who would stand shoulder to shoulder with you. Effortless and effervescent, each time the two of you were together you both shed the remaining layers of your defensive protection, revealing souls quite similar to each other. Agreeing and wanting to spend the rest of your lives together, both of you settled into joyful and playful lovingness. The first couple of years flew by as the two of you easily rode the waves of daily life, your love always ready to throw you a life preserver to keep you afloat. As the next couple of years rolled on by, a veneer of automatic expectations dulled the shine of your love. It was not an intentional action, just the strength of familiar routines dulling your heart’s love. Sadly, during these times one may not recognize what they have until it is gone.    COMING home to discover his wife Amy, played by Rosamund Pike (Surrogates, The Devil You Know), missing with only a piece of broken furniture left behind; Nick Dunne’s, played by Ben Affleck (Runner Runner, The Town), only thought was finding her. However, once the authorities were involved some of the evidence they turned up placed Nick in a suspicious light, no thanks to the growing media frenzy that was surrounding him. Director David Fincher (The Social Network, Fight Club) created a suspenseful thriller that was filled with intense, dramatic scenes. I especially found the camera work ideal in keeping the intensity level of this movie high. In my opinion this was Rosamund’s best role to date; she was unbelievable which says something since Ben and Neil Patrick Harris (A MIllion Ways to Die in the West, The Smurfs franchise) as Desi Collings were excellent. Since I had not read Gillian Flynn’s novel that this film was based on, I was surprised by the different changes in direction. If one read the book first, I believe the movie may have less of an impact. Having a running time of nearly 2 1/2 hours and its slow start, I felt the movie could have been cut down a bit. With that being said, I did not forget the film after I left the theater; it still gave me much to remember. There were a couple of scenes that had blood and violence in them.

3 1/2 stars