David Fincher’s Gone Girl immediately announces its intentions to deconstruct everyday images with a deceptive opening-credits sequence consisting of shots of empty houses, “for sale” signs, back alleys, and closed-up storefronts. Sure, there could be a socioeconomic subtext, some “How We Live Now” statement in this montage, but on a more basic level, these are just images of dreams that went bad: the house a young couple couldn’t afford or the bar that couldn’t compete.…
