Review #1,181: 'Nocturnal Animals' (2016)

Seven year after fashion designer Tom Ford surprised everyone by delivering a tender, stylish romance with A Single Man, the writer/director returns for another tale of romantic exploration tinged with danger and sadness. Adapted from Austin Wright's 1993 novel Tony and Susan and renamed Nocturnal Animals for the screen, Ford expertly weaves three narratives, each with their unique look, tone and mood, into a brooding character study. One of the few criticisms thrown at A Single Man was its tendency to place style above substance, but I disagreed at the time, and offer Nocturnal Animals as proof that Ford is a skilled director who balances aesthetic and narrative seamlessly, and often to devastating effect.

The film opens with shocking images of obese women dancing provocatively, and naked, in front of the camera. It's the opening of artist Susan Morrow's (Amy Adams) latest work, and it's a hit amongst the champagne-guzzlers who occupy the room. Susan seems to have everything: a lavish, modern mansion; a wardrobe full of expensive clothes; and a dashing (and rich) husband in Hutton (Armie Hammer). Everything, that is, other than happiness. At a dinner with her pompous artists friends (including a scene-stealing Michael Sheen), she voices her concerns about her husband's suspected affairs and her struggle to take herself seriously in her line of work. As Hutton jets off on a business trip, Susan is home alone when she receives a package from her ex-husband Tony (Jake Gyllenhaal). It's a draft of his finished novel, called Nocturnal Animals.

There a multiple stories within the film, and we are transported into the novel as Susan reads it. It begins with a family driving down a deserted highway at night when they are suddenly run off the road by a group of rednecks. The father (also Gyllenhaal) attempts to diffuse the situation by offering to pay for the damages, but the hooligans, headed by the psychopathic Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) wind up kidnapping the wife and daughter. The further this dark, violent tale takes us, the clearer it becomes that it is mirroring Susan's reality, and that there may be a hidden message in there somewhere. Is Tony fucking with his ex-wife for a prior incident, or could it be his bizarre way of trying to win back her affections?  Either way, this fictional narrative clearly holds the key to unravelling the couple's part turmoil, and the mindset of both Tony and Susan after their marriage fell apart.

The performances are impressive throughout. Adams demands your attention whenever she graces the screen, expressing the most powerful of emotions with the subtlest of facial movements. Michael Shannon, who was shockingly the only one of the four leads to receive an Oscar nod, is particularly memorable as a long-past-giving-a-fuck Texan lawman riddled with cancer. Yet it's Ford who emerges as the star, delivering an expertly crafted crime psychodrama that is both a curious study of the grotesque bourgeois and a lean, mean Texas revenge thriller. While it's certainly true that the male characters are much more layered than the females, the film received unfair accusations of misogyny upon its release, which may explain its absence from the major categories during awards season. It's a shame, as Nocturnal Animals deserves some recognition for its intoxicating cocktail of Hitchcockian tension, gritty human drama, and decadent visuals.


Directed by: Tom Ford
Starring: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Armie Hammer, Michael Sheen, Andrea Riseborough
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie