Page to Screen: Gone Girl

I recently went to see the movie Gone Girl which was on my list of 7 movies adapted from books that I wanted to see this year.

If you're unfamiliar with the story, here's the book synopsis and here's the movie trailer.

*These reviews may contain spoilers.*

Book Thoughts:
I read this book 2 years ago, so I can't remember very many specifics. I do, however, remember my overall feelings. Gillian Flynn's dual narrative style makes her books hard to put down. This one was no exception. The chapters alternate between Nick's point of view in the present when he discovers his wife is missing and Amy's point of view on their marriage told through her diary. I started off the book not liking Nick which I believe is the intention. I didn't entirely believe he killed her because that was too obvious. Then, midway through the book we're thrown a complete curve ball. I continued to have a hard time putting the book down because I wanted to know how it would all end. While reading the second half of the book, I grew to hate Amy. The ending turned out to be a total disappointment. I don't have a problem with books that don't end "happily ever after." My problem was that I didn't even find the end logical. What was wrong with these people?!?

I gave the book 3 out of 5 stars.

Movie Thoughts:
Despite the disappointing end, I was looking forward to the movie. I thought it had a lot of potential to be a great thriller. I was disappointed overall. The movie didn't capture that "hard to put down" feeling I'd enjoyed about the book. I thought the plot moved kind of slow. I also feel like in the book there was more to Amy's anniversary scavenger hunt which made me sympathize more with Nick and dislike her more. The scavenger hunt was very short in the movie and I know some things have to be cut out for time, but I don't think that should have been one of them. I would have liked more to have been told about the relationship between Desi and Amy. I didn't remember a lot of that from the book and don't feel like the movie explained it very well. Overall, considering some things have to change for movie adaptations, this movie plot follows the book pretty closely.

I also give the movie 3 out of 5 stars.

Have you read the book or seen the movie or both? What are your thoughts?