Gone
starring Amanda Seyfried, Daniel Sunjata, Jennifer Carpenter, Sebastian Stan, and Wes Bentley
written by Allison Burnett
directed by Heitor Dhalia
Rating: ♦♦♦◊◊
Some reviewers rated Gone among the worst films of 2012. But I rather enjoyed it. It had suspense, drama, paranoia, crime, serial murder, and a fast pace. It was a very traditional thriller format.
Set in Portland, Oregon, the scenery is always rainy, or else wet as if the rain just stopped. And dark. Remember how The X Files (which was filmed in Vancouver, Canada) looked? Like that. That’s the Pacific Northwest weather.
Jill is a young woman who narrowly survived and escaped abduction by a serial killer. But after the fact no one, not even the police believe her, calling it a hallucination due to a nervous breakdown following the deaths of her parents. Jill is committed to an institution. She’s medicated, then she’s discharged to live with her sister. No one believes her. Meanwhile, she never changes her story, so of course, it’s true and a serial killer is loose in Portland somewhere. At any given time American law enforcement estimate there are between 20 and 30 active serial killers in the U.S. That’s creepy.
Of course the man traces Jill and re-enters her life, tricking her into venturing out into the woods alone - at night. But this time Jill is ready for trouble. She’s packing her own handgun (quite illegally, by the way), and with a quick wit she’s able to solicit help from strangers, steal cars, and elude a police manhunt.
When she finally returns home she refuses to talk to the police who never believed her from the start, anyway. Instead, at a later time she anonymously mails to the Police Department the evidence she collected.