Dir:

David Fincher

With: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, Kim Dickens

Runtime: 145 minutes

THERE are bestsellers and then there are slam dunk, three cherries in a row, buy the mansion publishing phenomena. Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl, 8.5 million copies sold and counting, is such a happening.

There are directors and then there is David Fincher, helmer of Fight Club, Seven, and the Social Network, films that raise the IQ of cinema as they send the beats per minute racing.

Put Flynn and Fincher together and the result is this irresistible thriller, a cinematic portrait of a marriage that is every bit as slick and savvy as the book. Admirers of the novel will find honour satisfied, while those who have yet to read it will be quick to buy.

That both film and book should work so well as twist a minute thrillers is astonishing given that it is all but impossible to talk or write about them for fear of giving the game away. Just as there has been a mass conspiracy among readers to keep schtum, so there will need to be a pact among those who have seen the film not to divulge too much. We can do it.

Nick and Amy Dunne (Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike) are the couple at the heart of the tale. At one time, both were journalists in New York, handsome, cool, and successful. "We're so cute I want to punch us in the face," says Amy. Cut to five years on and they are living in the mid-west, the victims of recession and marital ennui. He is bored, she is resentful, life goes on.

Until the day, that is, when Nick, slacking in the bar he now owns, receives a call from a concerned neighbour to say his front door is ajar. Arriving home to find the house disturbed and his wife missing, Nick calls the police. Life is about to get a whole lot more interesting for Mr Dunne, but not in a good way.

In what is a remarkable achievement for a thriller that runs for near two and a half hours, Fincher starts with his foot to the floor and keeps it there. By lining up one strong character or theme after another - the wary female detective, Nick's cynical twin sister, Amy's helicopter parents, the 33-ring media circus which grows up around the case - he does not give the audience a moment to draw breath. Adding to the sense that this is one runaway train we don't want to jump from is the speed, complexity, and volume of dialogue. As in The Social Network, you have to listen to these characters, to savour every clever line and slick barb, and in listening one is drawn into their world.

The sheer amount of material, and how it is laid out, could have been overwhelming, particularly with Flynn adapting her own work. Towards the end, as with the book, a certain exhaustion and a few doubts creep in. Still, as a teller of complex, multi-character, many layered tales, the helmer of Zodiac and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo remains without compare in Hollywood.

Under Fincher, no character, no twist, is left behind. But even with a such a strong supporting cast, it still comes down to Affleck and Pike to do the heavy lifting. Neither disappoints. With Gone Baby Gone, The Town and Argo among his directorial credits, Affleck is shaping up to be something of an heir to Fincher. Here, though, he is content to be on seriously good form as an actor, toying dangerously and often with the audience's affections, unafraid to come across as a not terribly nice guy. Pike is handed a similar brief, and relishes every moment. The actress who has too often been second fiddle to others is given the chance to play every instrument in the orchestra, and shows herself particularly accomplished in the lighter, comedic moments.

Lighter moments in an 18 certificate thriller? Only a supremely confident director would dare to walk such a high wire. Fincher positively capers across, beckoning the audience to follow. Go baby go.