[star rating=”4″]
NOCTURNAL ANIMALS. Directed by Tom Ford, with Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Michael Shannon
Review: JANE MAYNE
An intense, impressive study of relationships and the potential sterility of steering one’s life towards embodying vacuous stereotypes.
Both leads (Adams and Gyllenhaal) battle their own demons – essentially along the lines of “I should have done” and “I made the wrong choice”. These are average, everyday quandaries which are easy to judge in hindsight, not so while in the fray of typical melodrama.
Flick-flack between past and present
Casting is excellent and together these A-listers shape a slightly enigmatic dreamscape which streams two intersecting realities. The one storyline, it turns out, is Gyllenhaal’s character Edward’s book, which is being read by his ex – chic gallery owner Susan Morrow (played by Adams).
A major theme underpinning the torment of these two lost lovebirds is the plight of the ‘sensitive’ man. Susan falls victim to the programming that over-caring, non-achieving men are ultimate losers, and hotfoots it off with a shallow, typecast caveman.
The flick-flack between past and present maintains interest (although the pace dips a bit in the second half), and it’s all open-ended enough to allow the viewer to make some headroom to take home and speculate about questions left unanswered.
Two endings provide extra meat, but may not be exactly what you’d really hoped for – which just goes to show how invested you become in the world of these Nocturnal Animals.
The production is based on Austin Wright’s novel, Tony and Susan, and Tom Ford’s (A Single Man) layered, soulful character study fashions it for the screen. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2016 Venice Film Festival.
WS
