Good news certainly exists and can’t be exterminated. Just return to the New Testament’s pages, or search online for “cancer research breakthrough”. But our media-saturated diet leaves the perpetual taste of despair. Adding further woe is the unreliability of the digital delivery network that updates us. Not that it is going to splutter or drop-out, like dial-up modems. The reliability issue erupts from how easy it can be to manipulate the truth.

Fight Club and The Social Network director David Fincher’s latest film, Gone Girl, tantalises with its manipulation of truth. At cinemas now and based on a recent bestseller by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl sounds like a premonition of the Oscar Pistorius or Gerard Baden-Clay cases. In the fictional case of Gone Girl, Amy (played on-screen by Rosamund Pike) goes missing. Widespread interest in her disappearance increases, as the chief suspect becomes her husband, Nick (Ben Affleck). His impassive response fuels speculation. So too the profits he stands to gain and the marital dysfunction they had experienced.

Flynn’s novel is alternatively told from Amy and Nick’s perspectives. Amy’s journal entries, and Nick’s reflections, provide differing accounts of their life together. Located in a worldwide web of posts, updates, blogs, and feeds, Gone Girl’s depressing portrait of a marriage combines bad news with manipulation of truth. A perfect storm for intelligent drama, on the big screen? Should be, as most Fincher films – as well as the House of Cards TV series he produces – memorably fixate upon the deceptive distortion of fiction with fact.  

Whatever the outcome of Fincher’s Gone Girl, the highly contemporary morality tale taps into core concerns. Well, what deserve to be core concerns. But an alarming trend of this modern life is how accepting we are, of accepting manipulation of truth. Even Christians – yes, Christians – can swim with the tide of playing fast, loose and unashamed with whatever the truth actually is. 

The media scrutiny centred upon Nick in Gone Girl offers an easy target. Easy to rage against false reporting, by large media organisations. But what about our own production, of multi-media reports? We photoshop images, edit our status and hide behind emoticons. Daily. No, hourly. Or more. As we massage the truth that we want displayed, do we question motives? 

There are stacks of Christian self-help books, talks, online resources and the like. Not many are dedicated to warning of the temptation to manipulate truth, built into digital communication. Gone Girl provides a sleek, mysterious challenge to consider how we know what we know. Participating in a never-ending conversation that says manipulating truth is something we all do, will Christians stand for truth? In all areas of life. Including that update you’re just about to send. 

Gone Girl is released in cinemas everywhere on 2 October 2014.