The Reel Review
This eight episode HBO mystery series, adapted from Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn’s debut novel and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée (Big Little Lies), stars Amy Adams as Camille, a hard drinking reporter confronting psychological demons from her past when she returns to her hometown in rural Missouri to cover the violent murder of one young girl and the disappearance of another. The miniseries is a moody, broody one, with excellent, subtle performances from Adams and Patricia Clarkson as her overbearing mother, and featuring trippy flashbacks of a young Camille (Sophia Lillis – IT) and sister Marian (Lulu Wilson – Ouija and Annabelle Creation). It is also an Easter egg-filled cornucopia of symbolic labels and messages, starting with a flurry of words scattered about town in the opening scenes to more did-I-just-see-that? types like “Last Exit To Change Your Mind” on an interstate road sign and a shocker that appears in the final scene of the first episode. Unfortunately, many of the later episodes drag on at a frustratingly slow snail’s pace, finally culminating in a clever, albeit somewhat predictable finale.
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