Review of Nocturnal Animals (2016) by Craig M — 25 Feb 2017

Ford is the master of surface artifice & the underpinning longing, manifesting it here in Amy Adams as fallen Southern debutante turned accentless / absent LA artist. Her artwork is videography of dancing obese women, nude except for majorette hats & boots.

Why is this what the character creates? Is she resentful of the happiness of these women? Does it make her feel superior? In her attempts to avoid becoming her mother, the nouveau riche Texan socialite, she has become her: nothing is ever good enough and everything must be destroyed to prove it.

And yet, the one thing she can't destroy is the new novel by her ex-husband. She is brought down by her own hubris, the thought that her apology or her praise will in any way affect him. In some ways, one could argue the picture is sexist: in how the fictional wife is victimized and in how the real wife is traumatized.

And yet, Ford has perfectly captured the empty husk of this type of woman. You can't help but feel pity at her own inability to change course & mean it, instead floundering in neutral while her new husband cheats on her and her ex-husband manipulates her.