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Intriguing, mysterious, peppered with black humour, and with a twist that will leave you disconcerted.

David Fincher’s Gone Girl, the long anticipated film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s New York Times bestselling thriller, is now out in Irish cinemas. Having grossed $38 million in its opening weekend, it looks set to continue delighting (and disturbing!) audiences in the coming weeks.

If you don’t yet know the premise: Nick and Amy Dunne are about to celebrate their fifth anniversary, when Amy mysteriously disappears from their home in Missouri. When suspicious evidence in the house suggests Amy has been kidnapped, the media immediately turns on her husband.

However, the film cleverly subverts the common preconception that when a wife disappears, it is usually the husband that has murdered her. It challenges us to regard either of the main characters as our hero/heroine: they are selfish, cunning and heartless, and yet we are inescapably thrilled by their story.

Rosamund Pike (Amy Dunne) is convincingly detached and Ben Affleck (Nick Dunne) plays the part of an unfaithful but victimised husband very well. Gone Girl is cleverly shot, making use of the novel’s original split point of view to cut between scenes in the past and the present. Although towards the middle the pacing fails a little, making the movie feel long, overall it is a successful adaptation of Flynn’s hit novel.

Perhaps the most unsettling part of the film is the comment it makes on modern media. As Nick’s lawyer says, he faces a trial by the masses and not by the law. Public image is both crucial and completely artificial.

Flynn and Fincher make us question whether we are guilty of allowing the media to make us complacent and uncritical in our opinions. More worryingly still, the film asks us whether we value a sensational story above the truth.

It will definitely have you arguing as you leave the theatre.