‘Gone for Good’ is a so-so mystery thriller
The fascinating relationship at the heart of Netflix’s “Gone for Good” is not the mysterious pair of disappearances that define protagonist Guillaume Lucchesi’s adult life. In fact, the crux of this five-part mystery thriller has much more to do with the streaming giant’s love affair with American writer Harlan Coben.
In that regard, French production “Gone for Good” is just about what you would expect, given Netflix’s practiced ability to translate Coben’s books for the small screen, and for audiences predisposed toward a binge watch. Viewers are treated to a slowly unraveling story that starts with a mystery, and jumps back in time to shed more light on a story that, episode by episode, winds up being more complicated than viewers first thought.
Guillaume (played by BritishFrench actor Finnegan Oldfield) is still haunted by the death of his girlfriend and brother a decade ago. Despite his continuing nightmares, he has found love again, but the day he proposes to new girlfriend Judith (Nailia Harzoune), she vanishes.
To track her down, Guillaume and his friend Daco (Guillaume Gouix) must uncover secrets from all of their pasts as they encounter double-crossing dealers, shady hitmen, and a ridiculous amount of familial lying.
Director Juan Carlos Medina manages to tick most of the right boxes. Each episode focuses primarily on a different character, and the story darts expertly from past to present and back again — building the layered mystery typical of Coben’s novels on the one hand while offering up flashes of information on the other.
Some wooden acting, questionable fight scenes and disjointed transitions from exposition-heavy dialogue to plot-powering action make “Gone for Good” a somewhat brow-furrowing watch at times. The payoff of the big reveal in the final episode feels earned, but that is mostly because it is something of a slog to get there. As binge watches go, it is a decent one.