NOCTURNAL ANIMALS
US, 2016, 117 minutes, Colour.
Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor- Johnson, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Armie Hammer, Karl Glusman, Robert Aramayo, Laura Linney, Andrea Reisborough, Michael Sheen.
Directed by Tom Ford.
This is a different kind of drama/ melodrama, two stories intersecting throughout the film.
(It is true that some audiences thought this was a nature film, an error something akin 50 years ago to people thinking that Midnight Cowboy was a Western!)
The film has an arresting, if disturbing, credit sequence, with a number of large portraits of calypagous women, many of rather vast proportions, naked, perhaps suggesting to audiences that this is what the title meant. But it leads into the character of Susan, played by Amy Adams, who is a gallery curator and this is one of her exhibitions. She is a tense woman, with insomnia, concerned about her husband (Armie Hammer) who seems to be away on business a great deal. She receives a package, the manuscript of a novel by her former husband and she begins to read. And the audience begins to see the dramatisation of this novel – which is called Nocturnal Animals.
We later learn that Susan and Edward, the author of the novel, shared interests and love earlier but Edward was a soft man and Susan are hard woman, especially in the vein of her snobbish mother (Laura Linney in a very effective cameo role) and the two parted.
One of the features that makes the film dramatically arresting is that Jake Gyllenhaal plays Edward in the flashbacks but also plays Tony, the husband in the novel. the performances consolidate his status as a strong actor.Truth be told, at least for some audiences, the dramatisation of the novel is far more interesting than Susan’s sleepless nights and her personal dilemmas.
The novel and the film takes us on to the back roads of Texas, a family going on vacation, father, mother (Isla Blair) and daughter (Ellie Bamber). They are minding their own business, the daughter, of course, preoccupied with social media. A car ahead on this open highway begins to play chicken games, slowing down, speeding up, but it all becomes worse when the petulant girl gives the driver of the car the finger – and what consequences for the simple giving the finger!
As we stay with Susan, sharing her memories, her relationship with Edward, with her mother, we keep hoping that she will pick up the manuscript again and continue reading. But, things become worse, the louts in the car, led by very surly and arrogant Aaron Taylor- Johnson, attack the family, abducting the wife and daughter, abandoning the father. We wonder whether the worst can happen – and most of it does.
As the novel continues, we are introduced to a local detective, played very effectively by Michael Shannon in his typically menacing Michael Shannon style. He is after the criminals, enlists the help of Tony to identify them, is on the lookout for their further misdemeanours, which brings up an even more dramatic climax, complicated by the physical condition of the detective who, because he has the cancer already, doesn’t have to give up his cigarettes.
While the novel within the film does have an ending, the film itself does not, Susan still having to make decisions about her life. Interestingly, the original novel is actually titled Tony and Susan. The parallels between Edward and Tony are worth considering.
The film is directed by fashion designer Tom Ford, is only of the film was another striking drama, A Single Man, with Colin Firth.
1. The title? Of this film? Of the novel within the film? Meaning? The original novel called Tony and Susan?
2. An LA story, a Texas story? Art world and the gallery, offices? Affluent homes? Texas, homes, college? The novel visualised, West Texas, the vast roads, the desert, night, cars on the highway, Huts and locations? Police precincts? The musical score?
3. The director, his career as a fashion designer, interest in art? The visuals of the film – the colours and vistas of clouds and sky? The credits, the women, the niches and displays, the Art Gallery?
4. Susan story: the credits, her work at the gallery, the staff and board at the gallery, the types at the social? The home? Hutton and his attitude? His going to New York, no phone call, floor 31, Susan’s suspicions? Susan, her friends, the friend with the psychic advice, her gay husband? The party? Susan alone at home, the servants, unable to sleep, the package with the novel, her reading it?
5. Edward, his novel, the dedication to Susan? The flashbacks? His writing, her art studies, meeting in New York, the dinner? Susan’s mother, her dominance in warning her? That Edward was weak? Susan’s counter that he was sensitive? The issue of her gay brother and her mother’s silence? Edward, his writing, focusing on himself, Susan’s reaction, urging him to go beyond, the attraction to Hutton, Susan leaving Edward? His comment that she was like her mother? Her feelings of guilt about leaving Edward? Her reading the novel, the story of the attack on the daughter – and her phone call to get reassurance?
6. Susan at the board meetings, issues of hire and fire, the other members of the staff, their style, fashion? The effect of reading the novel, at home, the bath, the rain? Edward’s email, the plan, her presence, drinking, his not showing up? Her being left with her regrets?
7. The film bringing the novel alive, the car, the family, relationships, the daughter and her texting? The night, the cars blocking the way, the daughter giving the finger and its consequences? The brutal story? The men, pursuit, forcing Tony off the road, the leader, arrogant and sexist? The confrontation? Tony and his reaction, backing down? The daughter and her aggression, her mother’s concern? The police passing by? The sense of menace? The men changing the tire, forcing the wife and daughter into the car, Tony travelling with Lou?
8. The audience identifying with the characters, the situations, the fear? Effect on Susan reading these pages, the return to seeing her at home, her reactions? Jake Gyllenhaal as both Edward and Tony, the different characters? The similarities? Susan’s relationship to Edward? Her response to the Tony of the novel? The sensitive father, suffering, anguish, bewilderment, hiding from the pursuers? Wanting vengeance?
9. Tony abandoned, his walking, the car returning and calling for him, his hiding, people passing on the highway, the police?
10. Bobby, Michael Shannon and his style, his work as a policeman, detective? His interviewing Tony? Retracing the steps, finding the bodies, dead, their fate? The photo and Tony not identifying the man? Time passing, Bobby’s phone call, robbery, Tony at the lineup, identifying Lou, his denials? The news about Ray, tracking him down, his sitting on the toilet, his arrogance, the scene, his being taken, his denials, the interrogation in the car, returning to the site, Tony desperate?
11. Bobby, the news of his cancer? The DA and dismissing the case? His decision, wanting justice, nothing to lose? Calling Tony, asking him about his vengeance? Confronting Ray, Lou and Ray together, the gun, Bobby shooting Lou? Ray and escape, return to the hut, Tony finding him? Ray and his rationale for his brutal behaviour, his arrogance? The gun, his getting the iron from under the bed, his attack on Tony, his being shot? Tony as blind, wandering out to the road?
12. The ending of the novel, the effect on Susan? The end of Susan story – and her future?
