2 years ago

@jmg999 Sympathetically, it seems you actually did miss the point and the message of this film. It's a merit of the script that it could tell the story of such reprehensible characters and still be entertaining and make the audience care to continue watching them. But the film is not sympathetic to her, or anyone of the characters that it spends the most time with. The ending, and the second appearance of the man from the beginning, is extremely important. It's a morality play like an Aesop fable.<br /> <br /> I haven't seen Pike in much of anything else where she had a real role to play, but I found her characterization of a cold sociopath to be just right.

2 years ago

@lnero Thank you for your response. Admittedly, my original post was quite over the top. Obviously, I felt that the script was flawed, but aside from that, I clearly felt that Ms. Pike's portrayal of the character in this film felt a bit off. I don't believe that she was meant to be a sociopath in this film, but she was playing someone w/ antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) in _Gone Girl_. In that role, she played it cool meaning that she played the entire film w/ a blank stare. It was unrealistic of those w/ ASPD. I take somewhat of an affront to some of these characterizations, b/c I studied research psychology in grad school, so I'm more familiar w/ personality disorders than most screenwriters. If you take a look at this link, it'll show you the criteria for ASPD in the _Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition_ (DSM-V) (https://www.psi.uba.ar/academica/carrerasdegrado/psicologia/sitios_catedras/practicas_profesionales/820_clinica_tr_personalidad_psicosis/material/dsm.pdf).<br /> <br /> ASPD, in addition to being indicative of the listed criteria, is often comorbid for other personality disorders, or at the very least, certain criteria of other personality disorders, since a certain number of criteria must be met in order for a diagnosis of a given personality disorder to be made. If you're interested in this, there was a study performed in 2013, where forensic psychiatrists and cinema critics selected 126 fictional, psychopathic characters based on "the realism and clinical accuracy of their profiles" (https://www.sakkyndig.com/psykologi/artvit/leistedt2013.pdf). They listed the most accurate portrayals based on this analysis. There was also an article written about this empirical research document (https://www.sciencenews.org/blog/gory-details/most-and-least-realistic-movie-psychopaths-ever). <br /> <br /> Just a side note, psychopathy isn't a recognized personality disorder in the DSM-V. It was removed after the DSM-III and replaced w/ ASPD, which focused more on the behavioral aspects of psychopathy and less on the personality characteristics (https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/03/ce-corner-psychopathy).

2 years ago

@jmg999 I can understand about having trouble with the way Hollywood and directors/actors use and sensationalize mental disorders. And yes, as far as my using "sociopath", or there being references to "psychopaths", it's difficult to get away from such language when referring specifically to people who harm other people in the way the film shows with how it goes along with a news item. The general public misuses pretty much every term of art -- in psychology or otherwise -- so I can't help but think it's almost better when they get a clean break like when the DSM writers removed it in lieu of another word that won't likely be used and abused by the general public. I did personally try to stop referring to real people who might potentially have ASD as sociopaths when I read about the DSM changing it a few years ago.<br /> <br /> And I do remember reading an article on the paper you mention when it was released. Thanks for the reminder; I may give it another look. I'm still waiting for an explicit example of Autism Spectrum being represented in a balanced way that isn't sensationalized. The last film I saw with that was _Night Clerk_. Pretty mediocre script, and I wasn't happy with the way they treated it, but it's not _A Beautiful Mind_. Same with ADHD. Traits in characters everywhere, but not mentioned. I also think it's a bad terminology for what may not even be representative traits of someone diagnosed with it. I still think we have a long way to go to find and properly treat that in society. --Uh, sorry for the rant.