This is
the last Oscar film I’ll likely have a chance to see/review before the ceremony
on Sunday, with Michael Shannon scoring a Supporting Actor nomination. I have vague memories of Nocturnal Animals being in theaters, enough to know that Amy Adams
and Jake Gyllenhaal were in it and that it was pretty dark, but it wasn’t until
I learned it was written and directed by Tom Ford (of the exquisite A Single Man) that I really became
interested in seeing it.
Susan, an
art gallery owner with an air of sophistication and an appearance of “having it
all” that belies her true situation, is blindsided when her ex-husband sends
her the manuscript for a novel he’s written.
The book’s title is an echo of a description he used to make of her, her
name alone adorns the dedication page, and the dark plot resonates with her
deeply. She recognizes him in the main
character, and the female lead, if not precisely her, is certainly his image of
her, and as the characters get caught up in a story of brutality, violation,
and revenge, Susan is drawn deeper and deeper into it.
I’ll cop
to being disappointed. It might be
unfair to compare Nocturnal Animals
to A Single Man, but I can’t help it,
and it doesn’t measure up. While the
direction here is undeniably very beautiful and there are some
singularly-arresting shots, it doesn’t stand out nearly as much as the
incredibly thoughtful, stunning visuals on display in Ford’s debut. Similarly, the writing doesn’t particularly
impress. Part of this is because, in my
opinion, A Single Man had much better
source material than Nocturnal Animals
seems to have had, but it’s more than just that. The film feels slow rather than deliberate,
and I can’t get an exact bead on the emotions the film is looking to
evoke.
Most of
all, though, I can’t really get behind the depiction of ex-husband Edward’s
book. Conveying a made-up “great novel”
in a movie is always tough, and while I get that Susan is drawn in largely by
the similarities she finds between herself/Edward and the characters, I don’t
have that same connection, and the story itself isn’t enough to make me think
Edward has a winner here. (Some voiceover
prose might have helped? Risky, since it’s
always at least a bit presumptuous for a writer to invent lines that we’re
expressly told are “beautifully written,” but the book scenes might have needed
it – as is, they mostly leave me cold.)
A lot of
familiar faces here turning in good work.
The aforementioned Michael Shannon appears in the book scenes as a
determined police officer, as does Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver!) as a
menacing redneck. Amy Adams does a nice
job of showing us both present-day Susan and the one in flashbacks of her and
Edward’s time together, giving us marked differences and yet still leaving
enough hints as to how one grew into the another. Jake Gyllenhaal does double duty as Edward in
flashbacks and the main character in the book, while casting Isla Fisher as the
book version of Susan’s character makes for an absolutely uncanny visual. The film also features brief appearances by
Laura Linney, Andrea Riseborough (who I still remember best from The Devil’s Whore,) and Michael Sheen.
Warnings
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