Movie Review - Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals ***½ (out of 5) (R) Susan (Amy Adams) married Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal) when she was a young aspiring artist, and he was a young aspiring novelist. They divorced about 20 years before the main action. She’s now unhappily married to a successful businessman in Los Angeles, curating cutting-edge art events and raising their daughter.

Out of the blue, she receives a manuscript from Edward. He’s finally finished his novel, entitled “Nocturnal Animals”, and wants her opinion. Adams’ “real” life becomes a wraparound, intercut with flashbacks to her time with Edward, and progressing through the contents of the gruesome thriller he’s written. That features a couple with a teenaged daughter (portrayed by Gylllenhall and doppelgangers for Adams and her offspring) driving through rural Texas (where the “real” two grew up) on a dark and lonely road. An encounter with a truckload of rednecks leads to tragedy and an ordeal for revenge and/or justice. The book is greatly disturbing for Adams, triggering a swirl of memories, introspection, and regrets about major decisions she’d made and the reasons for them.

Writer/director Tom Ford makes first-rate use of the play-within-a-play structure for overlapping suspense in both “realities”, and psychological exploration for the principals in each level. We ponder paths not taken and many of the discoverable reasons for the life choices we make. Fine performances from Adams, Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon serve as considerable assets to the emotional impact and empathy factors of this layered film. Many scenes are intentionally disturbing, so it’s not for the faint of heart. For the rest, think of this as an exercise in constructive discomfort. (11/23/16)