2012 Review #15: Gone

Gone

Rated PG-13
1 Hour 34 Minutes

Starring

Amanda Seyfried
Daniel Sunjata

Wes Bentley

Jennifer Carpenter

Story

When her sister disappears, Jill is convinced the serial killer who kidnapped her two years ago has returned, and she sets out to once again face her abductor.

Rotten Tomatoes Score

11%(No Consensus. The film was not screened for critics. Which is usually a really bad sign)

My Grade

F

**This review will contain plot spoilers**

"Gone" plays out like one of those dreadful Lifetime movies, except this may be even worse. This is just my opinion here, but this has got to be one of the worst movies of this genre I've ever seen. Amanda Seyfried plays a woman who was once abducted from an unkown assailant and left for dead in a hole in the woods. She managed to escape and none of the cops believed her story. Now, some time has passed, and her younger sister was abducted and she believes it's the same man who did it to her. But of course...no one believes her. She then goes on the hunt herself and everyone thinks she's insane and half the police squad is chasing her through town trying to stop her from finding her sister.

One of my least favorite characters in film are the cops who refuse to believe the hero's story. Sometimes it can create an interesting dilema to further the plot of the film, but in "Gone" they are the most god awful annoying human beings. The lead detective and his partner, who is some disheveled, drunk looking woman, will not believe the main character for anything. They don't even humor her by looking for her sister...who IS missing. They just insinuate she's crazy and chase after her when she goes off on her own. There has got to be some kind of protocol where the authorties have to at least attempt to search for the girl. Make a few phone calls. Something. But no, they do nothing. They didn't find the hole Jill said she was thrown in when she was kidnapped...so automatically she's crazy. I'm just saying, these are the worst film cops I think I've ever seen in a movie. I hated them.

Except for the one newbie detective played by Wes Bentley (The Hunger Games) who chooses to believe her. He has no reason to believe her, and he comes off as slightly creepy. I think the  film makers were attempting to make this guy suspicious by having him give sinister looks and acting funky at times. However, he kind of just fades away towards the final act of the movie. As if the film makers gave up on that idea and got rid of him. If he wasn't a suspect, then they at least implied he would help Jill out...but they gave up on that idea as well. It's like they didn't know how to wrap that character up in the end, and he became pointless. It just didn't add up or make any sense to even have this guy in the movie.

The whole story was just so poorly told. It was all over the place and was corny line after corny line. These cops are wasting all their time and energy chasing after this girl where it could just be more beneficial to work with her. Even if they think she's insane at least work with her to keep her in your sights. They tried to do this whole chase movie, but it really did not pan out well. The action was lame and dull and Amanda Seyfriend does not do this kind of role well. She's more of that goofball girl in comedies such as Mean Girls. Putting her in a dramatic role where she has to shoot guns and swerve cars all over the place just came off as stupid and almost like a spoof. Just not believable as an action/thriller star. This movie wasn't believable as an action/thriller. I don't mean implausible, because you know I don't mind that. I'm saying it came off as comical in a bad way and like a group of high school students wanted to dip their toes in film making. Amateur...that's the word I'm looking for. This movie was very amateur.

And when the kidnapper was finally revealed you were like..."Um, who?". No attempt to make it anyone surprising. It was just some random dude who we saw in one earlier scene in the diner the girl works at. The climax was barely a climax, it was so weak. She ends throwing him in the hole and burning him. She wanted the police to believe her yet she kills and burns the man. She had so much anger and blood thirst for this guy. He didn't rape her or kill her, just kidnap her. Yes, I know that's terrible and traumatic. But it wasn't some escalated crime that would warrant her to go all ape shit on him and burn him alive and not let him suffer in a prison cell. Her sister turned out to be alive and burried underneath their house the whole time. After Jill kills the guy, she just drives back home, tells the police she found nothing and they just leave her be. Sure, she ends up sending pictures of her being help captive to the police chief...but...God, it all just ended so so bad. This movie was a horrible piece of garbage in my eyes. Maybe others liked it, and that's great for them. But I really hated the living hell out of this movie.