Everything You Need to Know About the Dark Places Movie
We were pretty excited when the film adaptation of Gillian Flynn’s marital thriller Gone Girl was announced… and so was the rest of the movie-ticket-buying world. So why is it that just a few weeks away from its official premiere, the Gone Girl author’s new movie adaptation seems to be flying under the radar?
Dark Places Movie News
Here’s what we know so far:
- “An overstuffed, low-simmer potboiler”: Entertainment Weekly gives Dark Places a C+. Ouch.
- The movie “misses out on some of the novel’s finer points,” says Hollywood Reporter.
- The Washington Post wonders why this movie “barely made an impact.”
- 7 differences between the book and the movie. (USA Today)
- Here’s the official website.
- Dark Places premiered in Paris on March 30, then opens in France on April 8. No word on a U.S. release date yet, though. Update: U.S. release date is August 7, 2015.
- Slashfilm.com has our first look at the movie poster.
- See a gallery of images from the movie. (We Got This Covered)
- Check out the Dark Places trailer. (IndieWire)
- Here’s a newly released clip showing the creepy Kill Club.
- The director is Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sarah’s Key).
- The movie stars Charlize Theron in the leading role as Libby Day. The star-studded cast also includes Corey Stoll, Tye Sheridan, Chloe Grace Moretz, Nicholas Hoult, Sterling Jerins and Christina Hendricks. See the full cast list.
- Charlize Theron and Nicholas Hoult talk about what attracted them to this dark thriller. (USA Today)
- Flynn says the movie is “absolutely lovely.” Unlike Gone Girl, though, Flynn didn’t write the script for Dark Places. (Variety)
- Charlize Theron says she likes “complicated characters” like Libby Day. (EW)
- The critics’ rating on Rotten Tomatoes is an abysmal 24%.
About the Book
In Dark Places, Libby Day is the lone survivor of a massacre that killed her sisters and mother and put her brother behind bars for committing the crime. Libby’s testimony, given as a child, helped seal his fate. Since then, she’s managed to scrape by on donations from sympathetic well-wishers, but Libby is turning 30 and the money is running out fast. She reluctantly decides to make a quick buck by selling her personal story to a group of armchair investigators who are convinced that her brother was innocent — and want Libby to help clear his name. As we revisit the scene of the crime through Libby’s flashbacks, a picture of poverty, abuse, and domestic violence comes to light. But will the truth ever come out? Read our full review. Or see our Gone Girl book list for reading suggestions.
Our Movie Prediction: Pretty Good, Very Dark
Come on, it’s got Charlize Theron, who’s no stranger to playing delightfully twisted, love-to-hate-’em antiheroines (Young Adult). While the Dark Places book, Flynn’s second (between Sharp Objects and Gone Girl), isn’t our favorite by this author, it has some intriguingly flawed characters and suspenseful plot twists that should keep the movie action-packed. There’s even some potential for sharp social commentary about our gruesome fetish for thrilling journalism and the voyeuristic need to make other people’s tragedies into our entertainment. So we’re cautiously optimistic that this could be an enjoyably dark movie, though it doesn’t seem likely to be the international phenomenon that Gone Girl was.
Disagree with our predictions? Want to talk about the cast? Share your thoughts in the comments!
- Spring 2020 Book Preview - May 15, 2020
- Winter 2020 Book Preview - January 1, 2020
- Fall 2019 Book Preview - September 26, 2019
Leave A Comment