With the release of Gone Girl in local cinemas today, audiences will get the chance to see what is undoubtedly one of the best movies of the year to date.
It received rave reviews during recent festival screenings and has topped the United States box-office chart in the two weeks since it went on general release.
Having watched a European screener of the movie, I definitely recommend the movie. Its director, David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en), rarely turns in a dud and this is no exception.
My only concern: after cuts are made in keeping with local sensibilities, what version of the movie are we going to get?
The distributor, Empire Films, assures me that although some cuts have been required, they are minimal and they have been made “considerately” and “with a huge respect to the storyline and aiming not to damage it at all, nor confuse the audience”.
I hope they're right and I'm sure they'll do their best. We're certainly not looking at another Wolf of Wall Street here – you may recall Martin Scorsese's most recent film was released here with a whopping 45 minutes of cuts, about a third of the film, leading many to question why it had been released at all in the region.
There is certainly no need for that level of butchery in Gone Girl but – and it is a big but – I do have some concerns, specifically about two fairly critical scenes that are absolutely vital to the film’s storyline.
I’m not going to go into too much detail and spoil the film.
But the first scene comes about 40 minutes in and crucially changes the audience’s view of the main character, Nick, played by Ben Affleck, and of his possible innocence or guilt.
The second is the beginning of the finale, and a crucial scene on which the film’s ending hangs.
The problem? Both revelations come in the midst of fairly graphic sex scenes and seem unlikely to be seen by cinema audiences here.
In the case of the first, there’s still more than 90-minutes of the film to go, so audiences might be able to work out from the events that follow what has happened.
The second, however, is utterly crucial to understanding the ending and there’s precious little time afterwards for audiences to piece together anything that has been cut.
I’m intrigued to see what sort of creative editing Empire will employ to keep things flowing, and I wish its editors the best of luck.
I’ll be checking the film out in the cinema this weekend and reporting back. Watch this space.
cnewbould@thenational.ae
