Honestly for all that I constantly feel the need to point out Amanda Seyfried. She really is a good actress. I have yet to see her in any role I didn't like. I kinda think I might have to admit I love her as an actress. I may have to go back and watch movies *just* because she's in them. I may have to go watch the Theranos movie where she played Elizabeth Holmes and I kinda hate scammers like Holmes. It's why I hated Wolf of Wallstreet.

But over all this movie was successful. I think the filmography was a bit *too* dark. There's dark and moody like Darkman or Dark City or Sin City. These are movies with black but visually Gone looks like they just couldn't afford lighting. Everyone know you don't *actually* shoot at night. You shoot in the day and then reduce the brightness. (mild /s). Seyfried SHINES in the movie. Somehow everyone else feels worse or is written worse. The sister has a tearful scene where the emotions feel awful. Carpenter does a solid job as the best friend. The male talent is ironically enough led by the no leading man Nick. A janitor who rents out his car to a Jill in need. He has a small moment with her relatively but he was more believable than all the cops she yells at that feel like they're too tired to even be dismissive.

From a narrative perspective it's not the most twisty mystery. But it's got a solid pacing. The ending is quick but it doesn't feel rushed. It doesn't have the meat and potatoes of the chase but the chase wasn't shortchanged. There was only a minimal amount of "only in a movie" or "no other way to advance the plot" going on. Rather than focus on the ending with a climatic chapter it's literally the end of a road that was a great ride. I actually don't feel too shortchanged by the ending. Though in 2012 I kinda feel like phone tracking technology should be respected more. Turning off your GPS in your phone will not stop the police. I assumed at the time that by "turn off her GPS" she meant the phone was powered off which (in most cases) will stop tracking. But minutes later we see Jill on the phone talking to people. Otherwise Jill is a smart character. She's a final girl who escape and has to hunt down her taker. I've had this on my watchlist for a while and I'm glad i finally dove in because, while the cops are almost as ridiculous as the ones in Wolf Pack (2023), our final girl Jill is great. She's smart, she's decisive. She doesn't flop around making mistakes. She's caution and forceful. Plus there's guns and martial combat for people into that.

**Overall : Could it have been better? Sure. Was it awful? No.**

If you checked out the reviews for this movie elsewhere, you read that it is an absolute piece of garbage. And that just isn't true. It's a run-of-the-mill thriller with a very good performance by Amanda Seyfried as the main character that ends a little differently than expected. I enjoyed guessing who the killer was as the movie offered multiple red herrings to throw you off. Not one that I would say rush out to watch, but if you got a random need to watch a decent b-movie thriller, then maybe check this one out?

Kidnap Thriller 101.

Sarcastic Spoilers Within Review.

Off the bat lets say it, Gone is not a very bad movie, it has the requisite mystery elements, Amanda Seyfried makes for an engaging lead as the once kidnapped girl who nobody seems to believe, the cinematography (Michael Grady) is high quality and there's some decent moments of chills along the way. Unfortunately the film just exists as a case of unadventurous screenplay writing.

Gone is written by Allison Burnett, who writes it like some homework assignment set by a bored lecturer at a film studies class. Everything about it is rank and file what you have seen a million times before in this type of genre offering. A bunch of characters file in for cameos under the guise of red herrings, while our spunky heroine single handedly out-foxes the whole of the Portland police force, while naturally evading capture at every juncture.

Everyone but Seyfried's character are just on the periphery of things, where the likes of Wes Bentley and Jennifer Carpenter stand around hoping for the script to give them something worthwhile to do. In fact Carpenter's character is a set up for a late plot development, only for it to be the last we see of her, which is just bizarre in hindsight. Then the "big" finale arrives and the serial killer/kidnapper arrives and gets afforded the same "none" time as everyone else.

Nothing remotely original here, sadly. It serves decent enough as a time filler, but once the hopelessly weak finale plays its hand, you may come away asking yourself this question, why do films like this continually get green lit by studios when they have nothing more to offer other than putting another title on a budding actor's CV? 5/10