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“Gone Girl” was a smash hit as a book and now as a movie. Why do you think?

The story is about a beautiful, once happily married wife, who mysteriously disappears on her fifth anniversary. We do get some early hints about “Amy’s” manipulation skills, but mostly, there is room for imaginations to go wild.

Has her husband murdered her? Was she kidnapped? Or, did Amy find a way to escape from a marriage that wasn’t turning out as she had hoped.

Used to be that stories about seemingly loving relationships, ended with the “happily ever after” promise. Not this one.

Never mind that Amy turned out to be at best, a sociopath, who frames her husband for murder, after she discovers he has a mistress. Never mind that she participates with her husband in an oh-so-destructive marital dance.


Could this be a pop-culture trend? Think about the “Underwoods” in HBO’s, House Of Cards. They are also attractive, on the outside, and rotten within. Art does generally reflect life, at least it always has.

Picture of TV series

As much as this love doctor hates it, we may have come to a place where most believe these days, that living through a marriage is tough and is more like a psychological thriller than a romantic comedy.

Could it be that Gone Girl and the likes of it appealed to people, who secretly fantasize about escaping from something or someone… even if “murder” doesn’t exactly figure in the plan.

Maybe our collective pessimism explains why fewer people are married than ever before. Last year, only twenty-six per cent of people between the ages of eighteen and thirty-two were married. In nineteen-eighty, forty-eight per cent were married and in nineteen sixty, the number was sixty five percent.

The next movie I’m going to watch will be a soppy, romantic comedy and I promise I’ll continue to insist that the nicest way to live is with someone who loves you, who you love back.


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