Nocturnal Animals- A review
Tom Ford hasn’t done a lot of films. This is only his second
and it comes a full 7 years after the excellent debut of A Single Man. Without a history of comparable films and the fact
that the director is a famous fashion designer, you’d expect the film to be
visually stunning. And it certainly is. But it’s by no means the most striking
aspects of the film. The film is excellently scripted (based on Austin Wright’s
novel Tony and Susan) and weaves a
story within a story. The fictional story is strongly linked to the main story
despite being set in two completely different worlds. The main story is set in
the world of high art and the society around it. With beautiful sets and fancy
costumes, it looks like a photoshoot for a fashion magazine at times. Ford
belongs to this world in reality, of course and he seems to be able to make fun
of it. All the characters are unhappy but extremely motivated to seem
successful. This story is supplemented
(or perhaps overtaken) by a secondary story set in rural Texas about a murder
and revenge. The Texas story is introduced into the main in the form of a novel
manuscript given to the main character, Susan by her ex-husband who has
dedicated it to her.
The film presents us with far from a romantic vision of the
world. The sub-story is violent and tense yet manages to never become wholly
hopeless or bleak. In terms of setting up tension and thrill, the first scene
of the secondary story does this better than any film in recent memory
(probably since No Country for Old Men). The
film is not romantic but romanticism is a main theme of the film, as it is
regularly referenced as a foil to the striving ambition of the main characters.
This isn’t a particularly new topic and hence it could have been easy to fall
into cliché but while the takes on the struggle between artist versus careerist
aren’t new they’re also not boring or rehashed.
The script is excellent but so are the performances. Jake
Gyllenhaal is excellent in a dual role (he doesn’t really seem to be in much
bad films). Amy Adams and Michael Shannon (also extremely reliable indicators
of the fact that a film will be good if they’re in it) are also quite good with
Shannon especially being memorable as a Texas policeman with strong views on
meting out justice.
Guilt and revenge are also main themes in the film. More
explicitly in the secondary story but also present in the main as the
manuscript itself can be thought of as a type of revenge act. Proving that you
can be successful to people who doubted you is a common story in everything
from rap music to classic literature but there’s a lot in this film that
reminds the viewer of The Great Gatsby .
A Single Man could
have been dismissed as a one-off success if one is particularly cynical but Nocturnal Animals is also an excellent
film. It’d be hard to deny that Ford is a filmmaker of real quality and capable
of being as important in the film world as he is in fashion.
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