Dark Places — Blue Fairy Film Blog

Everyone loves "Gone Girl," as they obviously should. Whether it's the bestselling novel, or the film adaptation, everyone is clamoring to praise Gillian Flynn's masterstroke. Before Flynn wrote and published "Gone Girl," she churned out two other novels of similar dark virtue. The first was "Sharp Objects," and the second was this film's inspiration, "Dark Places." "Gone Girl" came out a meager one year before this film, and bankrupted its goodwill by being a powerhouse spectacle for stars Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. Director Gilles Paquet-Brenner always meant for this to be a small independent film, but now it will always be unfairly juxtaposed with its counterpart, which seems unfair given that the original book was quite entertaining and dark. As there wasn’t a wide release for this film it has languished, and remains an afterthought in the Gillian Flynn legacy. Is the film really that bad? The answer is yes and no.

The film pairs nicely with the novel it's based on. Everything is copied, including the uses of flashback, the bizarre Kill Club, and the episode between Libby (Theron) and her father, Runner (Bridgers). The book was amazing because it slowly unearthed the true events of the night in question, and it wasn't a simplistic mystery that anyone at home could figure out. The characters themselves emerged on the page, and their motives shifted throughout the narrative, creating great suspense and intrigue for anyone reading. This film did not harness the book’s original energy, and instead tried to be as upsetting as possible. It did not succeed.

The reason it didn't work as a thriller is because it didn't really do justice to the characters. Rosamund Pike was Amy, through and through, including all the manipulation, the cold veneer of hostility, and the ruthless predation. Charlize Theron was far too polished to be Libby Day, a little girl in a grown woman's body, scared of the outside world, and unable to do anything for herself except take others' sympathy for their cold hard cash. The pain and alienation of her childhood is thwarted by the calm, detached exterior that Theron throws on in lieu of true emotional depth. Much of the creepy elements of the book are thrown aside in order to exact the plot. Ben Day (Sheridan, Stoll) is nothing like the book. He is supposed to be this rebellious stooge, but in this film he comes off as a voice of reason who is manipulated by his rich, pregnant girlfriend, Diondra (Moretz, Roth).

Though I wanted to love this film, because it tries to do the book justice, it just wasn't weird or gross enough for me. Though it's about murdering a woman and her children, it felt mundane and contrived. Maybe "Sharp Objects," could be done well, but if it's taken on in the same approach it will be just as ignored as this film.