Dark Places (2015)

★★☆☆☆

Being a huge fan of Gone Girl, I was really looking forward to Dark Places. However, I must admit that I am disappointed.

Reading the book first or watching the movie first is always one of my biggest dilemmas. While I enjoy reading the book first to get insight about the story, it’s always rather disappointing when you watch the movie after. Gone Girl was one of the few that I did not have this feeling and I was hoping Dark Places would be the same.

Like Gone Girl, I decided to read the book Dark Places by Gillian Flynn before watching the movie.

I love Gillian Flynn’s writing style and the ending of her story always caught me off guard, I did not want to spoil myself for the ending when I am reading her book. However, after knowing the surprising ending and all the details about the plot, the movie of Dark Places became kind of a pain the watch.

I admit that I was not very fair when I watched this movie, as I love the Gone Girl story way more than Dark Places. However, thought the story line is not as interesting and intriguing as Gone Girl, I believed that there are a lot details that the movie can harvest from the book.

When I watch a mystery movie, I always enjoy the suspension when unveiling the truth. However, it appeared to me that Dark Places failed to build up the tension I was looking for. The 113 minutes movie filled with minor details and developed into a plain and tasteless movie. The movie detailed the process of the lead character investigating the case but not the emotion side of her. Even with the excellent performance from Charlize Theron, the movie failed to capture the characteristic of the complicated lead character. With this and the lacking of tension, Dark Places had became a long and dragging movie that I did not quite enjoy.