'Gone Girl' is the first great movie of the good movie season

It's that time of year again, when Hollywood stops its endless stream of horror movie remakes and romantic comedies no one wants to see. It's the season of quality films for adults -- which sadly gets shorter and sparser each year.

We've already had two bonafide masterpieces this year, Under the Skin and Boyhood, and I think I can safely say that David Fincher's adaptation of the page-turner Gone Girl is the third.

I sped-read the novel over the past week to prep for the film and while I found it endlessly entertaining, I fully expected Fincher to elevate the material (he did with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) into more than just a trashy potboiler.

Fincher has been on a huge role lately. He's always been a terrific filmmaker -- but ever since The Social Network he seems to have found his aesthetic groove. His films have a distinct, cool look where everything seems to be made of sharp corners and icy glass. His collaboration with composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have yielded some of the best scores of the decade. Most importantly though, he's found a niche for edgy, dark films that are not stocked with CGI superheros and aren't tarnished by forced sentimentality.

He has stumbled. I have never been as big a fan of Fight Club as others, and I thought The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was little more than a Forrest Gump remake, but the man's talent is undeniable. Gone Girl is a remarkable testament to Fincher's skills as a filmmaker, a riveting piece of mainstream entertainment.

It's the rare movie I actually enjoyed more as it went along, the second half is even stronger than the first and everything Fincher excises from the book will not be missed. The movie, despite its heightened circumstances (missing woman, husband suspected) has some darkly savage things to say about the nature of marriage and the mind of a sociopath.

Rosamund Pike

The movie and the book's brilliant conceit is a real role reversal of stereotypical gender roles. And I suspect that some men will leave this film never looking at their partner or spouse the same way ever again. Still, this is not necessarily a deep movie -- it's just an enormously well-crafted one.

What the film gets right is what the book largely lacked, a very strong sense of humor. Gone Girl, the movie, doesn't take its salacious material too seriously. It is also, like most great films, perfectly cast. Ben Affleck has never had a role more tailor-made for him. He plays a man whose wife goes missing and for reasons I won't spoil for the uninitiated, he is not as sad about it as he should be.

Affleck is a strange case - I can't remember another actor who has seen their stock fall so far with audiences to only spike back up. He largely deserves the credit. After becoming somewhat of a punchline after making forgettable films and being ubiquitous in the tabloids, he directed three straight strong films. In both The Town and Argo he reminded us that he could act, but also ceded the showier roles to his co-stars. By humbling himself, he's endeared himself to us. And not unlike say Michael Douglas, he can play characters that may turn us off at times, but we still can't help rooting for.

Neil Patrick Harris and Tyler Perry acquit themselves well by playing against type, but the real find here -- and in my opinion what should be a lock for a best actress Academy Award nomination -- is Rosamund Pike as the "girl" in question. I had seen her in other films, most prominently as a Bond girl in Die Another Day, but she is a phenomenon here -- pulling off an incredibly difficult role as a neglected housewife who's enormously "complicated."

Pike's performance in particular sold me on a story that was frankly ludicrous on the page, and could have been ridiculous on screen. This is very over-the-top stuff, but Fincher keeps it grounded and fun, so you never feel like you're getting ahead of the movie or being manipulated by glossy trash.

It's too early to say if Gone Girl will still be in the conversation by the time the Oscars roll around. There are still several highly anticipated films that have yet to be seen by a wide audience. I will say that with Gone Girl, whether you read the book or not, you will get your money's worth.