Plot
An art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.
Release Year: 2016
Rating: 8.0/10 (4,101 voted)
Critic's Score: 76/100
Director: Tom Ford
Stars: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon
Storyline
A "story inside a story," in which the first part follows a woman named Susan who receives a book manuscript from her ex-husband, a man whom she left 20 years earlier, asking for her opinion. The second element follows the actual manuscript, called "Nocturnal Animals," which revolves around a man whose family vacation turns violent and deadly. It also continues to follow the story of Susan, who finds herself recalling her first marriage and confronting some dark truths about herself.
Writers: Tom Ford, Austin Wright
Cast: Amy Adams -
Susan Morrow
Jake Gyllenhaal -
Tony Hastings /
Edward Sheffield
Michael Shannon -
Bobby Andes
Aaron Taylor-Johnson -
Ray Marcus
Isla Fisher -
Laura Hastings
Ellie Bamber -
India Hastings
Armie Hammer -
Hutton Morrow
Karl Glusman -
Lou
Robert Aramayo -
Turk
Laura Linney -
Anne Sutton
Andrea Riseborough -
Alessia
Michael Sheen -
Carlos
India Menuez -
Samantha Morrow
Imogen Waterhouse -
Chloe
Franco Vega -
Driver
Taglines:
When you love someone you can't just throw it away
Trivia:
This will be Jake Gyllenhaal's 35th film. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 8/10
Anticipation runs high for fashion designer Tom Ford's sophomore
directorial outing after his stunningly sleek, candidly reflective
debut A SINGLE MAN (2009), NOCTURNAL ANIMALS has just been crowned
GRAND JURY PRIZE in Venice 73', which comfortingly bodes well for its
prospect in the Oscar game ahead.
I saw it in on a grand screen in Venice, the film kick-starts with
stunning montages of female carnal corpulence, which turns out to be an
opening night of a modern-art exhibition organized by Susan Morrow
(Adams) in her sumptuous-looking gallery, this eye-opening gambit
straight away shoots audience into a state of euphoria towards what we
would regard in the offing. Susan lives in a posh residence with her
business-oriented husband Walker (Hammer), and in fact, their
relationship is teetering on the brink, Susan suspects the latter is
cheating on her. The unbidden arrival of a manuscript written by her
ex-husband Edward (Gyllenhaal), whom she jolted 20 years ago, casts her
mind back to the bittersweet recollection of their jinxed relationship.
They married for love, but Edward, a struggling writer, is deemed "too
weak" for the ambitious, capable art student Susan, pinpointed by
Susan's mother Anne (a matriarch Linney in her scene-stealing cameo,
immaculately coiffed too), Susan boldly defies her assertion but, the
truth is, mother is always right about her daughter and more
disheartening, every daughter becomes her mother in the long run. The
break- up is a big blow to Edward, not helped by him catching Susan
with Walker in a date.
The manuscript is a novel written by Edward with the titular name, and
this story-within-a-story marks Ford's resolute departure from his
wheelhouse - the upmarket ritz and glitz. Hence, he assuredly strides
into his untested ground - a Western revenge thriller. In the novel,
its protagonist, an ordinary guy Tony Hastings (Gyllenhaal again),
embarks on a family vacation with his wife Laura (Fisher) and their
daughter India (Bamber) in the backwoods of Texas, one night when they
are driving on the highway, road rage is engendered between them and
three local ruffians, Ray (Taylor-Johnson), Lou (Glusman) and Turk
(Aramayo), strife follows and mounts to an unnervingly
edge-of-your-seat intensity. Tony is not a violent guy, even during the
distressing moment when Laura and India are strong-armed into riding
with Ray and Turk in their vehicle, meanwhile Lou forces Tony to drive
in another with him, Tony comes off too powerless to save his family
(one important detail, the ruffians are unarmed, so in hindsight, there
is a fainting chance if Tony is strong and brave enough, he might be
able to take down his rivals), thus, the tale sends its harrowing
message: it is Tony's "weak" nature that should be at least partially
responsible for the tragedy incurred to his wife and daughter, but is
it? (I think some of us will differ.)
With all the efficiency and predictability of police procedural and
post-trauma recovery, Tony's revenge, exacted one year later - which is
aided by detective Bobby Andes (Shannon), who is bent on seeking
justice within their own hands - eventually hinges on the central
question, can a civilized man pull the trigger when facing rank vice,
even he has an irrefutable motivation to do so? In another world, can
Tony pass the ultimate manhood test, to be a man defined by a rigid
frame of mind?
The manuscript drastically stirs Susan's psyche, she is intrigued,
emotionally affected by the story's undercurrent of emasculation and
humiliation, and attempted to meet Edward for the first time in 20
years, but what awaits her is something she might not expect - Edward's
belated revenge, two decades later, which will shoot her down when she
is at her most vulnerable.
Gyllenhaal continues his extraordinary stretches of virtuosity in front
of the camera, unleashes his show-stopping elemental intensity in his
dual roles, especially in Tony, a character poles apart from his
strapping figure, a meek sheep unfairly punished for his nature, it is
a heartbreaking display of bravura. By contrast, Adams epitomizes a
more detached persona nestled in her privileged niche, outlines a more
subdued inner journey aptly paralleling Tony's trials and tribulations,
and eventually it would strike a more resonant chord with viewers.
Shannon, stands out in his effortless turn as a terminally-ill Texan
cop equipped with irresistible tics, brazenly unperturbed in his
relentless hunt. And, Taylor-Johnson, whose stardom hardly takes off
after his breakthrough in Matthew Vaughn's KICK-ASS (2010), has been
further pigeonholed in extremely unsympathetic roles notwithstanding,
finally finds a knack to lighten the screen with his repugnant
cockiness to a fault. Incredibly, there are captivating and hilarious
cameos galore, barring aforementioned Linney, Andrea Riseborough, Jena
Malone and the unrecognizable TRUE BLOOD star Kristin Bauer van Streten
are all smashing one-liners.
Finally, a big thumb up to Mr. Ford, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS comes out
brilliant and thought- provoking after ingeniously blending two rather
incongruous styles within one feature-length, it is a gorgeous
testimony that filmmaking shouldn't take the seat of a second fiddler
for this multi- talented taste-maker, not in a world we need someone
like him whose reading of masculine culture is far much perceptive than
the dispiriting status quo.
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