How 'Gone Girl' And 'Notting Hill' Are Basically The Same Movie
We blame Anne Hathaway for opening this strange can of worms and making everyone question: Is Gone Girl actually just a different version of Notting Hill? See, back in 2017, Hathaway made a guest appearance on The Late Late Show With James Corden where she gave everyone a slight pause by saying her favorite rom-coms were the Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant classic Notting Hill and … Gone Girl -- the movie where Ben Affleck cheats on his wife, Rosamund Pike, who then fakes her own kidnapping/murder before killing a creepy Neil Patrick Harris herself. Oh, love you, you murdering rascal, you.
Since then, some folks have argued that Gone Girl could in fact be everything from dark comedy to romantic satire to whatever you call Pike making those eyes at her hubby. More interesting, however, are the similarities others have picked up between the David Fincher thriller and the British film that features Rhys Ifans in his undies.
Both movies look at how society likes to dictate what a woman should be and how she should act by stripping her of a personality and putting her in a “Perfect” box, ready to be judged and condemned from there on out.
Each film also ends with the men, Will (Grant) and Nick (Affleck), fully understanding not only the women they chose to make commitments to but also the price they’ll have to pay which is basically always having a part of their lives play out in the public arena.
The theme song of Notting Hill is “She,” originally by Charles Aznavour but covered by Elvis Costello specifically for the film:
Oh, snap! The trailer for Gone Girl used the same song.
Well, that was pretty eerie how the song suddenly became all dark and twisty like that. You cannot argue that the lyrics fit both movie plots perfectly:
She may be the face I can't forget
A trace of pleasure or regret
May be my treasure or the price I have to pay
She may be the song that summer sings
May be the chill that autumn brings
May be a hundred different things
Within the measure of a day
She may be the beauty or the beast
May be the famine or the feast
May turn each day into a Heaven or a Hell
She may be the mirror of my dreams
A smile reflected in a stream
She may not be what she may seem
Inside her shell
Chillingly brilliant, as it nails the character nuance of both Hollywood star Anna and the Amazing Apocalyptic Amy. Of course, it goes further than the song. Both these films delve into the differences between a person’s complex personality and their public persona and how the media aids and abets in that perception — often to the detriment of those people and the folks surrounding them.
In the end, “they all live happily ever after” — literally for better or worse. Probably until someone cheats on someone else again.
Zanandi is on Twitter.
Top Image: 20th Century Fox/Universal Pictures
