[rating=10.00]
One magical evening, David Lynch and Cormac McCarthy drank too much champagne and bourbon, making a drunken mistake the two will never admit to. That drunken mistake grew up to be Tom Ford’s filmmaking style. In what may be the most captivating film of the year, Ford’s Nocturnal Animals is decadent and intriguing, sitting squarely in a perfectly encapsulated story that felt both true and surreal.
Susan (Amy Adams) is having a hard time. She’s a successful art gallery owner with a foxy husband (Armie Hammer), friends whose lives are worse than hers, and of course the money to remain so artfully depressed that you’re almost not annoyed with her inability to allow herself to be happy. Of course, we soon learn that her foxy husband is cheating on her, giving way to a guilt she’s been ignoring for years. She receives a manuscript from her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) who dedicates his book to her, adding a note about how the work is different than she might be used to from him. After spiraling through her unraveling life, she begins to read the book, becoming completely immersed in the fear and drama of Edward’s story.
It opens with a family that are obviously a stand in for what Susan and Edward once were. After deciding on driving all night through the dark roads of West Texas, they have a run in with the very terrifying Aaron Taylor-Johnson and cronies. Things quickly get out of control, and Susan reads on in abject horror as the world she could have easily been a part of falls into disarray. The two storylines align nicely as Susan thinks back to her time with Edward.
Right off the bat, Ford creates a world you’re not expecting. Susan feeds into her fears by accepting a dinner with Edward, leading to a complete disruption of her everyday life as she anticipates the day. While on some level this could pass as an erotic thriller, there’s more to it than that. Susan feels the book is a threat, but really it is Edward’s last stand. She broke his heart in an unforgivable manner. Where Susan sees a nefarious deed, Edward showcases an unbreakable spirit, bound by some unspoken promise to give Susan what he never could. It’s poetic, devastating, and yes, at times terrifying.
Edward’s novel reads like something McCarthy would have spat out after a night of heavy drinking and fighting with his lady. It’s dark and indeterminant, mirroring that terror that comes from the unknown of the sweeping landscapes that make up Texas. It is this trait that combines the clash of the Lynch-like styles in Susan’s everyday life, bringing a nuanced indulgence for both the characters and the viewer alike. There is no one thread of existence, it all seems to happen at the same time, steering away from confusion and into the void of time moving just as it should. Our perceptions are thus altered, allowing the full conception of the storyline to wash over us all at once.
Adams’ portrayal of Susan is perfect, and the fact that they cast Isla Fisher as her Nocturnal Animals novel character is the cherry on top. While the two constantly get confused for one another, they are never interchangeable, this time being no exception. Fisher’s fear and helplessness in Edward’s world reveals a deep-seated wish for Susan to have been less of a strong woman, and more immersed in the mother and wife role. Again, Taylor-Johnson is absolutely terrifying, and his character’s blasé attitude towards violence is masterful. Gyllenhaal continues to grow as he portrays both the broken Edward and broken Tony with such different characteristics that it’s easy to forget he is playing both roles. The innate consequence of his story on Susan’s psyche is like a trophy to cap off his continued existence outside of her world, and even as he stays mostly absent from her current life, he still has a hold on her.
Overall the film did everything right. The pieces that shouldn’t have worked as well as they did stand out majestically against the stark backdrop of one another; but they do. Ford has achieved something special with Nocturnal Animals that he’ll hopefully continue to pursue.
Nocturnal Animals is now playing in a theater near you.
