Dark and suspenseful, David Fincher’s Gone Girl will resonate with viewers long after they leave the theater. Fincher, who also directed the iconic Fight Club and Academy Award–winning The Social Network, adapted Gillian Flynn’s bestselling novel of the same name.

The element of surprise is crucial to the storyline, which revolves around the disappearance of the main character’s wife. The media’s coverage of her disappearance and the changing public image of her husband and alleged murder Nick Dunne are integral story lines. Throughout the story, Fincher relies on antiquated and sexist portrayals of women, a decision that has been criticized by some. Though he has responded to these critiques in interviews, the intentions behind his portrayal of women remain ambiguous.

Ben Affleck, perfectly cast as Nick Dunne, convincingly portrays a man with whom the media initially sympathizes, and later turns on. Appropriately, Affleck has had a similarly volatile relationship with the media; in this way, Affleck essentially gives a performance within a performance.

Rosamund Pike gives the standout performance as Amy, Nick’s wife. Through her performance, Pike demonstrates the many facets of Amy’s character. In the film, it is revealed that Amy’s parents wrote a series of children’s books about her called Amazing Amy. Though the series appears, on the surface, to idealize Amy, the viewer learns that she is a far more complex and dark character than the Amy portrayed in the books. There are many different sides of Amy introduced throughout the movie, and Pike’s performance makes every version captivating.

Carrie Coon gives a convincing performance as Margo, Nick’s twin sister, who provides the only voice of reason in a film otherwise void of rational responses to a slew of conflicts. Her character effectively voices the audience’s concerns and thoughts as the other characters constantly make questionable decisions. Tyler Perry gives a rather upbeat performance as the lawyer who helps Nick craft his public image. The only weak performance of the film is delivered by Neil Patrick Harris, whose portrayal of one of Amy’s ex-boyfriends is too stoic, rigid and unrealistic, and pulls the audience out of the experience of the film.

Overall, Gone Girl presents a scathing picture of the media as manipulative and unreliable, choosing to focus only on sound bites and assumed personalities, with little concern for hard facts.