Nocturnal Animals Review

     Nocturnal Animals had tons of potential in my eyes. When a psychological thriller is executed well, it takes you on a rollercoaster of emotions. Zodiac, Fight Club, Gone Girl, and other similar films are all favorites of mine. They get you to think for hours about their interconnected and multi-layered stories. Not to mention, the shocking twists and turns you never so coming. Some reviews I ran into compared it to another movie I recently reviewed called Arrival in the sense that it keeps you thinking and stays with you long after leaving the theatre. That just served to increase my excitement even more.

     Let’s get into the meat of what does and doesn’t work in this film. The acting is phenomenal. Jake Gyllenhaal is amazing in his role, showing why he’s one of my favorite actors working today. I think he’s found his niche in the past few years with the crime movie genre. His work in movies like Zodiac, Nightcrawler, and Prisoner are some of the standout acting roles of the 2000’s. Amy Adams and Michael Shannon also offer up strong performances. However, the person that steals the show here is Aaron Taylor-Johnson. He transforms himself into his character. He comes off as creepy and unpredictable but also believable. On a different note, the cinematography is beautiful with some amazing images and establishing shots. The film’s greatest strength, is its structure. There are three interconnected plots told through scenes that flash between the present-day, the past, and the storyline of a book. Each segment is timed out extremely well, keeping you engaged with what’s happening on screen but also holding your curiosity about how the other storylines will play out. You stay engaged for the entire film because of this, wanting to see how everyone ends up and how everything ties together.

     Unfortunately, this positive also contributes to the film’s biggest weakness, which is the ending. I understand what the meaning behind it was and why they went that way but without spoiling anything, one of the character’s decisions comes off as childlike and immature. Although it has a deeper meaning, it doesn’t shine through in the way the film plays out. For me, that was a problem throughout the whole film. The three storylines are clearly meant to relate to one another but the connections between them are either too obvious or too obscured. The movie doesn’t find a nice balance between the two in order to make the plots stay independent of one another, while also tying in well with one another. Aside from that, another negative was the sections of the film in the present-day. I see why they were necessary in order to show Amy Adam’s opulent lifestyle and character progression. However, they are also the parts when the movie gets to into itself. These scenes show Tom Ford’s influence on the film. The beginning takes a bold chance but it comes of as bizarre and a lot of the subsequent imagery and characters in the present day are weird and extremely shallow. Maybe that’s what Ford was going for but the way it was done detracted from the film.

     There are definitely a lot of strong elements in Nocturnal Animals. I was engaged throughout and have been thinking about it ever since I got out of my seat last night. However, a lot of the answers and meaning behind the questions the film offers, aren’t rewarding or impactful. The film sets itself up for a great ending and doesn’t deliver. This isn’t a bad film but I wanted it to be much more than what I got. I give Nocturnal Animals a 7/10.