By JAKOB HAND

COLUMNIST

If you are looking for the perfect movie to see for Halloween this year, go no further than “Gone Girl.” The film follows Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) who returns home one day to find his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) missing and his living room a wreck. It is not long before Nick’s odd behavior makes him the target of a police investigation into his wife’s murder. Amy wrote that she was afraid of Nick in her diary, a drug dealer claims she tried to buy a gun from him, then a neighbor reports that Amy was pregnant and Nick did not want kids: these incriminating clues begin to surface that make Nick look like he could be Amy’s killer. When the press finds out that Nick was having an affair, it seems as though the last nail in Nick’s coffin has been hammered.

“Gone Girl” is a noir thriller set in a small, heartland town, and, as is usually the case with small towns, nothing is as it seems on the surface. Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris), a lover from Amy’s past, shows up unexpectedly, complicating the investigation. Despite the evidence that Nick murdered Amy, nobody can find her body. Amy’s parents, both rich authors who write children’s books based off of an idealized Amy, refuse to believe that she could be dead and mount a nationwide campaign to find their daughter. Meanwhile, Nick, his sister Margot (Carrie Coon), and Nick’s famous TV lawyer Tanner Bolt (Tyler Perry) fight the case against Nick, slowly refuting the evidence against him until nobody is sure what really happened to Amy. Soon “Gone Girl” transforms into a series of carefully constructed lies unraveling one after another, each more damaging than the last.

“Gone Girl” succeeds in making the theater become audibly tense, a testament to the wonderful work Gillian Flynn did in adapting her novel for the screen. The master of mood, however, is the director, David Fincher (“Fight Club,” The Social Network,” “Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”) who is undoubtedly the perfect person to direct such a dark thriller. Rosamund Pike delivers a brilliant turn as Amy in what is sure to be one of the year’s most memorable performances. Paced and edited beautifully, “Gone Girl” has the look of the best Hollywood noir films, and is sure to be a hit at the box office and awards circuit. If it was not so obviously a perfect Halloween movie one would think that Christmas had come early.