Review of Nocturnal Animals (2016) by Kyle C — 18 Dec 2016

A story within a story, but do either of the stories work? In ways, they both do, but in other ways, God God, they do not. This movie may have the distinction as having the worst opening credits sequence and the worst ending together, with the middle being a very well acted and well shot double story.

The opening sequence is absolutely disgusting and unnecessary, and the ending is really, really bad. Amy Adams is fantastic in this, as she always is, but she is great. Jake Gyllenhaal is also very strong in a dual role, as well as Michael Shannon.

This is a very dark and sad story/stories. The suspense is high because you really don't know where or how it will end, but what ends kind of ruins everything that happened before it. I'm kind of on the fence as to whether or not I actually liked this, because what I saw was an intense thriller that was bookended by pure nonsensical things.

So after a lot of thinking I will have to unfortunately say watch with caution if you absolutely must see it, because for the most part, it's very well done, but the 1st 5 minutes and the last 5 minutes totally change your outlook.

For me, I will say SKIP IT because for all the good that it is, not enough happens to carry it fully through. I am giving High Recommendations to the acting though.