Taking pride

Gillian Flynn's 2012 novel Gone Girl was a runaway bestseller. It's the kind of riveting book people read in hope that there will someday be a movie version. Of course, that day has come with David Fincher's big screen adaptation of Gone Girl (20^th Century Fox/Regent), starring Ben Affleck and Rosamund Pike (who is having a good year), featuring Flynn's own screenplay adaptation of her novel.

Even if you haven't read the book (this reviewer hasn't), there are things to admire. Director David Fincher, always a master of mood, gets off to a slow start. The story, a dense thriller about a troubled marriage and a missing wife, is full of red herrings and patently unlikeable characters. Hot but unambitious Nick (Ben Affleck) and his mannequin-like trust-fund-fueled girlfriend Amy (Rosamund Pike), date, marry, lose their jobs, leave Manhattan and relocate to small-town Missouri.

Then, one day, Nick's girl is gone. The police get involved. So does Nick's twin sister Margo (Carrie Coon), as well as Amy's parents Rand (David Clennon) and Marybeth (Lisa Banes), and don't forget about Nick's much younger girlfriend Andie (Emily Ratajkowski). Let's just say there's a whole lot of set-up for what comes next.

Turns out, Amy's not gone after all. This is where Fincher hits his stride. The story gets scary and violent. Not as thrilling as a thriller ought to be, Gone Girl messes with the genre and rolls out a bizarre cast of characters including an obsessive ex-lover, a nosy neighbor, cable news divas, a celebrity lawyer, white trash criminals and others. Neil Patrick Harris plays a convincing straight man. For that matter, so does Tyler Perry.

All in all, Gone Girl is much too long and would have been closer to perfect if it had been trimmed considerably. Still, we do get a brief flash of full-frontal Ben Affleck nudity (although it's really more of a side view), so maybe it's not a total loss.

Pride (CBS Films), the feel-good gay movie of the year, is an exuberant and uplifting flick in the tradition of Brit-com faves Brassed Off, Billy Elliott, The Full Monty, and even Kinky Boots. Brought together by their shared mistreatment by and distaste for British dicatatrix Margaret Thatcher, Pride tells the unlikely, but true, story of the way a group of left-leaning gay activists came to the aid of striking and conservative Welsh miners in the mid-1980s.

Gay and pompadoured Mark (Ben Schnetzer) and his queer crew, including Mike (Joseph Gilgun), lesbian Steph (Faye Marsay) and others, regularly convene and work in a space provided by bookstore owner Gethin (Andrew Scott) and his lover actor Jonathan (Dominic West) in London. Newly out Joe (George MacKay) becomes the group's official photog following a chance meeting at a Pride march. News of the strike and Thatcher's disregard for their basic needs during the standoff inspires Mark to take action.

Meanwhile, in another part of the United Kingdom, the miners and their families are unaware of what awaits them. When their affable leader Dai (Paddy Considine) agrees to meet with the newly formed group LGMS (Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners) he unexpectedly opens the door to a blending and clashing of cultures and communities.

Director Matthew Warchus pulls out all the stops, regularly tugging at our heartstrings while subtly getting political messages across to viewers. Tolerance and acceptance of LGBT folks is only of the layers revealed. Because of the timing of the tale, there is also an undercurrent of AIDS phobia and awareness. There's a heartwarming coming out scene (no spoilers here) and the supporting cast, including Imelda Staunton and Bill Nighy, all rise to the occasion.