‘Nocturnal Animals‘ (2016) directed and written by Tom Ford (adaptation of a novel by Austin Wright) is one of the smartest, best written and well executed films of the last decade, a film that I watched with great delay. I honestly don’t know why I missed it at the time and put off seeing it for so long afterwards. The film is constructed from three narrative planes – two in reality (which take place in the present and, through flashbacks, 20 years before) and an imaginary one resulting from reading a book. The stories evolve in parallel. The characters and their shared pasts are revealed to us as the story progresses, but there are enough questions and unexplained details that prompt viewers to continue to think about the heroes and their destinies after the screening is over. Tom Ford does not hesitate to shock, but he does it with a purpose and with the taste of the fashion designer and filmmaker that he is when he is not (too rarely) directing feature films.
‘Nocturnal Animals‘ begins and ends with two scenes that viewers will not easily forget, each memorable in its own way and very different from the other. Between them, the frame story is of a marriage falling into routine and perhaps even falling apart. Susan, the lead character is the owner of a very avant-garde art gallery in Los Angeles, herself regretting that she did not have the courage to embark on a career as an artist. Her husband, a wealthy businessman, is cheating on her and doesn’t even make much effort to hide this fact. When she receives from Edward, her ex-husband, the manuscript of a book dedicated to her, she realizes that her life is still in the shadow of her first love. She remembers the episodes related to her first marriage, short and abandoned, and she is overwhelmed by regrets for not having the courage to decide otherwise, giving in to the pressure of her conservative family, giving up art and a financially insecure but perhaps truer way of life. Her experiences are amplified by reading the book, a violent revenge novel set in Texas whose characters seem to mirror her and Edward, perhaps an expression of the wounded feelings of the man she left two decades ago. The three stories – the domestic drama in the present, the romantic intrigue in the past and the imaginary revenge conflict in the book intersect. To what extent is literature – specifically the book written by Edward – a reflection of the nostalgia and pain of the man who wrote it? To what extent does the ‘art’ that Susan’s gallery exhibits depict the vanity of the life she leads in the comfortable present? And how is it that the characters in the imaginary action thread seem more real than those in the luxurious metropolis? Do they belong to the same America? If so, what happens when the two worlds meet?
The main roles are played by two actors that I really like. Susan (present day and 20 years younger) is played by Amy Adams. Tom Ford often shoots her in close-up, which means that much of the feelings are expressed through looks or face expressions. Jake Gyllenhaal is cast in a double role – that of the writer Edward and his character Tony, the man who lives the traumatic experience in the novel. But there was also a third exceptional role, that of Bobby Andes, the policeman who has nothing left to lose from the imaginary story, played by Michael Shannon. The nuanced performances are aided by excellently constructed dialogue, and the ending has been and will be talked about by everyone who has seen and will see the film. Tom Ford is one of those directors who is in no rush to make many films. It’s been seven years since ‘Nocturnal Animals‘ hit the screens, and since then he hasn’t made another feature film (this was his second). I hope we will see him again with new films as soon as possible.