Review of Nocturnal Animals (2016) by Nate Z — 30 Dec 2016

"When someone loves you, you have to be careful with it!".

Nocturnal Animals is directed by Tom Ford and stars Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The film's story or stories outlines Susan Morrow, an incredibly depressed art historian, who receives a manuscript from her first husband Edward Sheffield that outlines a disturbing story about a man who loses his wife and daughter and, with the help of a sick detective, he hunts down the men who took them from him. This film is extremely divisive since it has some extremely well made and incredible elements yet it also has some really pretentious or bad elements as well. This film has three different storylines within it; the present, the flashbacks, and the book's story. These stories are edited together in an effective fashion that connects them together really well. The editing also outlines the similarities between the stories in both tone and atmosphere. The story also allows for some impressive moments of tension where how the characters will act or what will occur to them is unknown. This is also accomplished through the really impressive, engaging and heartbreaking performances by Michael Shannon and Jake Gyllenhaal. Michael Shannon plays the law enforcement figure in the book's story and he plays a wide gambit of emotions in this film. He can be intimidating, friendly, sympathetic, pained, helpful, and compassionate with equal levels of skill. He is easily the best part of the film. Jake Gyllenhaal, who is an extremely talented actor who gives great performances in nearly every film he is, is the only actor in the film that has a dual role and he plays each with skill. His performance as the husband who lost his family is heartbreaking and extremely emotional. Similarly, his performance as Adams' former husband is charming, sympathetic and also heartfelt. However, these performances, the multileveled story, and effective editing are the only impressive elements of the story. There are some aspects of this story that are poorly made or tediously communicated. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is an extremely disgusting and annoying character, which, while it does fit his role in the film, does become degrading as the film continues. Amy Adams also gives a rather bland performance with forced emotions and repetitive motions. She spends most of the film just starring into space and it gets dull and boring after a while. This boredom is not aided by the extremely slow pacing of the film which makes it feel much longer despite an average runtime. This is interesting since the story has many elements that should be engaging. There are many dark and extremely disturbing scenes in this film that should be engaging but the many unnecessarily weird and disgusting elements of the film slow it or distract from the engaging elements. The opening in particular is extremely weird and strange with no real significant or relevance to the plot or the characters. Along with these disturbing or unnecessary plot points, there are many generic story telling or directing techniques like the use of blurry shots, silence and slow motion during a love scene. There are even some story elements that are never explored like Amy Adams' character's insomnia. These unexplored story elements seem to have been sacrificed for the sake of these disgusting or unnecessary scenes. There are also many characters that are only in the film for a few moments which makes them underdeveloped and again unnecessary. These characters are even portrayed by extremely talented actors like Michael Sheen or Laura Linney and makes their characters feel even more wasted. Additionally, the story seems to not build up to anything really substantial or impactful. Thus, this lowers the impact of the film. Nocturnal Animals is a hard film to really define or review since it has so many strange and weird elements that it is subjective to the viewer. Personally, I feel Nocturnal Animals has two great performances and effective editing between three similar stories that has some unnecessary, boring, or disturbing elements that detract from the film as a whole. Therefore, I would only recommend Nocturnal Animals if you are a fan of Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, or stories with incredibly weird or disturbing elements.