Filthy Review - Gone

Gone (2012)

Review by Jude Felton

Jill (Amanda Seyfried) is a young woman with a troubled past. She is haunted by an event in her past in which she was abducted by a serial killer, or was she? Therapy has not done much to help her, and as such she is always on guard. This ordeal is brought very much to the fore when, upon arriving home from work, she discovers that her sister Molly (Emily Wickersham) is missing.

Jill’s immediate thought is that Molly has been abducted by the very same killer who abducted her, and is trying to get at Jill though her sister. Understandably, Jill goes to the police, but upon arriving there is met with cynicism and doubt; they are convinced that Jill made the entire serial killer/abduction story up, and that her sister is probably just out with friends.

This leaves Jill to investigate what exactly has happened all by herself.

On the surface the plot of Gone is quite intriguing, and you will find yourself asking the very same questions that arise during the film. Whether the killer is real or not and whether Jill was abducted or not, is kept under wraps and the answer is not revealed until late in the movie. This would be wonderful had the structure and execution of the movie been so lazy.

Throughout the film, Jill follows one lead to another without any real effort involved; it’s only a matter of time before she will find her answers, without any real tension. Things only do get a little tense towards the end, in a quite effective scene in the woods. By then though it is almost too late.

Where the film does work is with Jill’s interaction with some of the other characters. Almost everyone she meets could be a killer, and all eye her up with an obvious distrust and subtle level of threat about them. This does help to empathize with Jill’s frustration as she continues her search.

Visually the film is pretty damned good to look at. Shot in and around Portland, the scenery of the surrounding area is nicely shot, and on the whole Gone is a good looking film, which is only enhanced on Blu-ray.

Gone is a thriller that was obviously designed as a vehicle for Amanda Seyfried, she is in almost every scene, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and seems to play the part with conviction. However, with all the focus being on her it seems that the rest of the film, including the other actors, was serious neglected. Also starring in Gone, but never utilized to their potential, are Wes Bentley of American Beauty and The Hunger Games, Jennifer Carpenter (Quarantine and The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and Joel David Moore, who was terrific in Chillerama and Hatchet yet pops up for just one or two scenes here. Quite why these actors weren’t given more fleshed-out roles is quite the mystery.

Overall, Gone is a good looking film which had a lot of promise, only to be let done by a poor script and wasting a solid cast. It seems that Lionsgate Films, who released the film on Blu-ray, are only too aware of this, as this release has no supplemental material aside from a trailer or two. Gone really does nothing to enhance Amanda Seyfried’s leading lady potential, and hopefully she will see better roles come her way.