In stark contrast with the abstract styles of expressionist filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, and David Lynch, David Fincher makes movies that are very naturalistic and grounded, almost documentary-like. All the tricks from the cinematic playbook are still on display, bringing each story to life, but these films always have a strong footing in a relatable reality.
In this sense, Fincher’s style is comparable to Hitchcock’s. And like Hitchcock, Fincher has given moviegoers some truly memorable, richly drawn characters, and cast the perfect actors to play them. Here are the best characters from IMDb’s 10 top-rated David Fincher movies.
10 Alien 3 (6.5) – Ellen Ripley
There’s not much to enjoy in Alien 3, and it’s not even really a David Fincher film. It was technically his directorial debut, but Fox executives meddled so much during production that he didn’t really have any control over the final product and has since disavowed it.
If there’s one pleasure to be had in Alien 3, it’s that after the soul-crushing opening kills off Newt, Hicks, and Bishop in one off-screen fell swoop, we get to see screen legend Sigourney Weaver back in the role of Ellen Ripley. When you suffer a devastating trauma like settling in for a subpar Alien sequel, you cling to whatever you can.
9 Panic Room (6.8) – Meg Altman
Perhaps the most Hitchcockian of Fincher’s movies, Panic Room is an intense thrill-ride revolving around a mother and daughter locking themselves in a safe room in their house when burglars break in.
Everybody can relate to a parent’s struggle to keep their child safe, and Jodie Foster ably brings this conflict to the screen with authentic emotions and believable chemistry with her on-screen daughter Kristen Stewart.
8 Zodiac (7.7) – Robert Graysmith
Fincher’s dramatization of the haunting unsolved Zodiac murders revolves around three true-to-life figures — cop Dave Toschi (Mark Ruffalo), journalist Paul Avery (Robert Downey, Jr.), and cartoonist Robert Graysmith (Jake Gyllenhaal) — but it’s the latter who is the most compelling.
Gyllenhaal has a certain brooding intensity in the role, while the mere fact that a cartoonist took on the Zodiac killer makes him incredibly interesting.
7 The Social Network (7.7) – Mark Zuckerberg
David Fincher’s direction of The Social Network, as well as Aaron Sorkin’s highly acclaimed screenplay, keep the focus squarely on Mark Zuckerberg as he invents Facebook and enters into endless legal battles with people he used to call friends.
Jesse Eisenberg doesn’t shy away from making Zuckerberg entirely unlikable, which is why he remains a compelling anchor for the movie; he doesn’t try to have his cake and eat it, too.
6 The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (7.8) – Benjamin Button
Unsurprisingly, the most interesting character in a movie about a man who ages backwards is the man who ages backwards, the eponymous Benjamin Button, played by Brad Pitt (and six other actors at various different ages).
At 166 minutes, spanning an entire lifetime, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a movie with epic scale, but Pitt’s performance keeps it grounded and intimate.
5 The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (7.8) – Lisbeth Salander
Fincher’s Hollywood re-adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo — an unfortunately unsuccessful attempt to launch an R-rated franchise for grown-ups — is a difficult movie to watch.
Its blunt portrayals of violence, particularly sexual violence, are harrowing and impossible to unsee. But Fincher doesn’t use shocking situations for the sake of shock value; it all serves the journey of Lisbeth Salander, played powerfully by Rooney Mara.
4 The Game (7.8) – Conrad Van Orton
Michael Douglas makes for a great audience surrogate in The Game, reacting authentically to all the strange goings-on that slowly invade his life after the titular game commences.
But it’s his brother, played by Sean Penn, the one who signed him up for the game in the first place, who steals the show.
3 Gone Girl (8.1) – Amy Dunne
Just like the Gillian Flynn novel it’s based on, the first half of David Fincher’s Gone Girl adaptation plays out from the perspective of the clueless Nick Dunne as he becomes a prime suspect in the mysterious disappearance of his wife, Amy. Then, the second half shows viewers the same story from Amy’s point-of-view, as we see the dark, disturbing depths of her psychopathy.
Rosamund Pike breathed life into Flynn’s iconic character, projecting what fans read about her on the page onto the screen in a way that few novel-to-movie adaptations manage.
2 Se7en (8.6) – Detective Lieutenant William Somerset
John Doe is the elusive serial killer one step ahead of the cops and Mills is the hotshot young detective with a personal vendetta against him, but it’s arguably Somerset who is the heart and focal point of Se7en. He’s a sort of Ed Tom Bell figure; a veteran lawman simply trying to do his job, whose moral worldview is challenged when he encounters inexplicable inhumanity.
Al Pacino was the first choice for the role, but Morgan Freeman turned out to be the perfect actor to bring this character to life. Pacino would’ve delivered his lines with explosive eccentricity, whereas Freeman brings a more reserved quality to the role, expressing character through little nuances and blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em details.
1 Fight Club (8.8) – Tyler Durden
At the end of Fight Club, it turns out that — SPOILER ALERT! (but seriously, the movie’s twenty years old) — the Narrator and Tyler Durden have been two personalities within the same brain the whole time. But they’re presented to the audience as two separate characters, played by perfectly-matched duo Edward Norton and Brad Pitt, and Tyler is easily the most iconic.
He’s the one spouting all the anti-establishment rhetoric and anarchist calls-to-arms, and Pitt delivers every monologue beautifully.
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