I figured Gone would be your typical brain-rot teen thriller type of movie. It really surprised me with how well put together it is, and my wife and I were pretty shocked at how much this movie exceeded our expectations. To be sure, Gone has its limitations – it is most definitely a light formulaic thriller. But it’s a well done light formulaic thriller, a genera that is basically 99% disappointing crap.

Gone is like a version of The Fugitive (another well-done light formulaic thriller,) except it’s a gorgeous young blonde running around, evading the police and solving a mystery. Its pacing is very good, and amazingly it holds its dramatic tension all the way through to the ending. The individual scenes and characters that Seyfried encounters on her journey of research are pretty well-conceived and well-written, and her character is fun to watch, even if her high level of evasive maneuvering seems at times a touch unrealistic. It is a very efficient film; there’s not much filler at all. It’s even shot well, and the score is not half bad.

The big reason Gone holds it together in its final third is the scene with the phone conversation between Seyfried and the strange guy. It’s a surprisingly riveting piece of cinema, so much so that I found myself thinking “this kind of film should really not be getting this good here at the very end.” The guy’s voice and delivery are superb, and the writing is good enough to give you the creeps while at the same time seeming very believable. Even in the film’s climax, the pacing does not slow, and the filmmakers do not succumb to the usual hackneyed cliches, obnoxious grandiosity, or overly drawn out action sequences. It’s all played pretty straight, right to the end. You don’t see this much anymore.

I’m not saying this film is great – far from it. I don’t think I would ever feel the need to watch it again. The cops are kind of cardboard and the story, while interesting, is a bit linear, certainly not deep. Seyfried, whose performance is more than decent in this film, is not the kind of actress that can make gold out of lead. But Gone is fun and satisfying, and has many nice qualities. It’s well worth Netflixing, in my opinion.