Ben Affleck stars as the husband of a missing woman who comes under suspicion, and he says there's a piece of that character he can relate to personally.
The author of the novel, who also wrote the script for the movie based on her book, likes to call "Gone Girl" "the date movie to end all dates" and jokes the new film could "break up couples nationwide."
The movie is sure to get everyone talking, but it's also very entertaining.
The plot involves a wife who goes missing and a husband who gets blamed, and it has an intensity that will be very familiar to anyone who has ever followed a high-profile trial on TV or watched a celebrity come under fire.
In real life, Ben Affleck is the husband of Jennifer Garner and a father of three, but to play this character so effectively, he drew on his years when his relationship with Jennifer Lopez kept him in the tabloids.
"I know what it's like to see myself presented in the media in a way that I don't recognize," he said. "I've been in that place where I feel like I've been cast in some soap opera that I don't remember doing and didn't write the lines for and don't like the scenes."
The hapless husband struggles to make sense of his wife's disappearance five years into their troubled marriage.
"They suffer some issues that come from outside the marriage, and they let it infect their marriage," he said. "It's almost too late by the time they try to deal with it."
Even more drama comes from wondering what happened to Amy and whodunit? They are questions made even more interesting by her complex personality.
"She's just someone I feel my work would never be done with, really," star Rosamund Pike said.
Pike is due to give birth next month, but she wasn't going to miss the premiere of the movie that will redefine her career. And the New York Film Festival was the perfect venue to position the film for oscar consideration.
"Gone Girl" is from director David Fincher, who gave us movies like "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" and "The Social Network."
Sandy asks the cast, what's your favorite New York movie?
Share your favorite New York movie in the comments below.