Gone Review
Here it is – the long awaited review of Gone. Well, maybe not so long awaited. Maybe anxiously awaited?
Before I start, I just want you all to understand you much work goes into reviewing a video. I had to watch it like 7 times! And I had to keep rewinding and pausing! It was mind-boggling! Now, I can’t get those images out of my head. I should get danger pay.
So, anyway. The video starts out with a short 20’s era skit. Personally, I like the skit, but I think I like it because it’s similar to what they did in concert. So I think I like the continuity there, I’m not sure. Actually that must be it, because otherwise it really makes no sense for the skit to be there.
But…moving on. The guys are in the skit and they all take turns "busting a move" so to speak. We see Justin do a fair Charlie Chaplin. We see Lance doing something – I don’t know what the hell it was – but it seemed vaguely reminiscent of the era. We see Joey doing something – as with Lance, I don’t know what it was, but he looked ok. We then see Chris having some kind of conniption. Interesting side note. Chris is dressed as a Keystone Cop. Coincidence? I think not. That’s JC’s influence. And last, we see JC doing the Worm. And a mighty fine one at that. This part makes me cringe and laugh hysterically at the same time. JC slays me.
Then the other guys are gone – *gasp* GONE?! Get it? – and we are left with Justin and his girl. Apparently, she was there the whole time but was letting the boys have the spotlight. They’re on a couch, getting close, getting friendly, but in a very shy, 20’s way, when suddenly, Justin accidentally kisses her. Justin faints.
As if.
Now the video shifts and we find ourselves in modern times. We see Justin wearing black pants and a black wifebeater (SCORE!) and looking really, really dejected and despondent and pouty and vulnerable (DOUBLE SCORE!).
Then we intercut to the not-so-distant past. And to my least favorite scene. This scene shows Justin and his girl in one of their happy moments – where he’s painting her toenails. SQUICK for me big-time. But that’s just me. Maybe I had a bad experience with toes when I was a child, I don’t know. So Justin’s painting her toenails and he seems really happy about it. He’s also very proud of himself when he finishes the job. Good for you Justin.
Then we intercut back over to the present where the big, slashy moment comes into play. All the guys are now sitting on a bed with Justin – they are all wearing black and looking serious and sedate and mighty fine. Very lickable, all of them. Oooh, I almost forgot. Lance is not sitting on the bed with the rest of them. For some mysterious reason, he is standing next to the bed, leaning oh-so-protectively and suggestively over Joey.
Things that make you go hmmm…
BTW…there’s something else that I noticed about this scene that made me go hmmm… The bed is not made. It is in fact stripped down to the mattress, the sheets being nowhere to be found. I have a theory about this, but I’ll save it for later.
Now we have another flashback of the happy times. This is the one I like to call "The Wild, Drunken Partying Scene". And don’t even try telling me that they were high on life in this scene. People don’t dance with a party hat on their nose (Justin) or a party favor hanging out of their mouth (Lance) unless they’re smashed to the gills. Trust me, I know this. Don’t ask me how I know this. I just do.
BTW…many laughs are to be had when Lance comes on the screen and he’s freaking that girl. I’m not sure why this is funny, but it is.
Now we switch back to the present. Justin is still looking depressed and sad. He walks to the fridge and opens it (my guess is to look for comfort food), but he finds none, so he closes it and leans against it, looking even sadder and more depressed.
Suddenly the other guys are back. They are on the bottom of the staircase singing. They are all still in black and they are all still quite tasty looking.
Then they have some more intercuts between the happy days and the present. We see Justin and his girl in the bathroom, being all lovey-dovey, and then we see Justin in the same bathroom all alone and sad. We see Justin and his girl romping and frolicking (yes, I said romping and frolicking. I call ‘em like I see ‘em) in the backyard, then we see Justin all alone and sad in the backyard.
But not for long, because suddenly the guys are there again, all sitting on the grass behind Justin. They are all wearing black and looking somber and looking mighty damn fine.
One more intercut of Justin and his girl smooching in the hallway and then we see Justin in the same hallway, all alone and sad.
Now at this point, for some odd reason, JC comes on screen and we see him sing for a long time. I personally think that JC had had enough at this point and threatened Herb Ritts with bodily harm if he didn’t get more screen time. He hates it when he’s treated like one of those other three backup singers.
So we see JC and my does he look hot! All sexy and sullen. Nice. Very nice.
Then I think we go back to Justin. Then we go back to JC, only this time instead of looking sullen he looks pissed. He looks like he’s getting ready to beat someone (probably Chris). And again – he looks hot. This looks suits him, most likely cause it’s the one he wears most often in life; the clueless one is a close runner up.
Then we see Lance on the screen. Is he wearing eyeliner here? I think he might be. Odd that.
Then they briefly show Chris, who looks quite nice, but kind of uninterested in the whole situation.
Then they go back to Lance, who is now looking down and looking about as sad and forlorn as Justin has this whole time.
Then they show Joey. Now let me stop here for a second.
Joey.
You guys know how I feel about Joey. He does very little for me. He’s the one I always look at and go, "Damn it Joey, you’re blocking my view of Chris!" But this time, this one time – I found Joey hot. Not just hot, but like frigging scorching. I wanted him and I wanted him badly. I wanted to do evil, nasty things to him.
I have just lost my mind. My world has been torn apart. My life makes no sense now that Joey was the Nsyncer I most wanted to mate with.
Anyway, then they show Justin again, who is leaning against a wall with a film showing right next to him. The film? The boys and the girl in the 20’s era all dancing happily in a row.
Closure.
Very nice.
Now before I give you guys my final thoughts of the video, let me alert you guys to a little side story that I managed to catch in the video. It’s like a video within a video. A subliminal sub-plot if you will.
Or if you want to call it my perverted mind in action, you may.
Here’s what I get.
Justin just broke up with his girl. He’s really, really bummed. He’s in the bedroom thinking about all the wonderful times they shared together in there and he’s remembering his favorite moment – the toenail painting. He’s so sad that he picks up the phone and invites his buddies over. They come in and find Justin on the bed, crying his eyes out. They feel so bad for him that they decide to have an orgy to see if it will cheer Justin up. They’re not gay, but they’re really good friends like that. After they have the orgy, they notice that they got the sheets really dirty (if you know what I mean) so they pull them off and put them in the washer. Then they put on their clothes and sing with Justin for awhile, just to make sure he’s really ok. Which he is; he’s no longer crying, is he?
So then they go home thinking that Justin’s ok. But a few days later Justin goes over to his fridge to get something to eat and finds that it’s completely empty. He gets really depressed because he and his girl used to do all the shopping together. Pretty soon he’s crying again. He calls the guys over and they decide that maybe Justin needs another orgy. Justin decides that this time he just wants to watch, so he stays over by the fridge and the guys go over to the staircase and have lots of hot, sweaty sex. After the orgy, they put their clothes back on and stay on the stairs to guard the house while Justin goes shopping.
They are REALLY good friends considering that they’re not gay.
Justin comes back with the groceries and they all go home. But…a couple days later Justin is doing some work in his flower garden and he starts remembering all the times he and his girl did the wild thing in the backyard. He starts crying again. He calls the guys. They come over. They’re really quite sore and they don’t want to have sex again, but Justin just won’t stop crying. It’s the only way. So, they get naked and freaky in the grass. Justin participates this time. After the orgy they all sit down on the grass and hang out with Justin (who is no longer crying), because they’re just too damn tired to go home.
After awhile Justin stands up and goes in the house. He stands by the wall and starts remembering again. Damn it! Why won’t these memories go away? This time though, he tries to handle the pain by himself and doesn’t call the guys.
The guys hear him crying of course, so they individually go into the house to share in his agony. They wish they could have sex again to cheer Justin up, but damn it, there’s only so far a man will go for a friend. So JC goes in first and here we see how he feels about Justin’s plight. He’s really mad at that girl. He would kick her ass if he ever saw her again.
Lance goes in next. Lance is really, really sad for his friend. He can empathize. He even put on eyeliner in some weird, twisted attempt at solidarity.
Chris is next. Chris really couldn’t care less. Well, he’s kind of upset because he’s sore, but all he really wants to do is slap Justin, tell him to get over it and go home.
Then finally Joey comes in. Joey is in agony just like his friend. He feels his pain. He’s crying too, damn it. Where’s HIS comfort though? Huh?
Then Justin realizes that he has the best friends in the world after seeing how upset they still are that he’s upset. He pulls himself together and promises himself that he will be strong. He can live without this chick. He has his buddies; who needs women?
The End.
Wasn’t that a beautiful sub-plot? I thought so.
Ahem…but here we go with my final thoughts.
This video is the Justin show, but that’s the way it should be. Honestly, he sings the song, he should be lead. Anything else would have seemed too cluttered.
I like the black and white. It gives the video a certain dignity and simplicity that compliments the song. Plus the boys look really good in black and white. Very nice.
I like the scenes where they show how happy Justin was and then show how sad he is now. Shows us what the song is about and that’s good. The only thing that might have made this better is if they showed Justin and the girl fighting or in the bad moments of their relationship just before the breakup. That way you would have gotten a better sense of their entire relationship.
Overall, I think this video is just very nicely done. I have no snarky comments at all. My hat’s off to Herb Ritts. Bravo to the boys for not letting JC get his way this time. Did anyone else notice that there were no bubbles in the video?
Great job guys. I give this one a 9.