Nocturnal Animals (2016)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Nocturnal Animals (2016) – T. Ford

Although Tom Ford’s film seems to take place in the same world that you and I live in, there is something not quite the same, perhaps it could be called a “heightened” reality, almost Lynchian in some ways.  Maybe this is because Amy Adams’ character works in the art world and there are heaps of shots of art objects and references to existing artists (e.g., Koons, Freud; the latter emphasised in the in-your-face opening credit sequence).  Or maybe the unreality arises because the film contains two narratives, the first that reveals Adams and her (thoughts about her) past and present relationships, and the second that shows the novel she is reading, entitled Nocturnal Animals and written by her first husband who dedicated it to her.  Novels don’t need to follow the same rules of our reality – but this one, starring Jake Gyllenhaal (who also plays her ex-husband), mostly does, particularly in the way it highlights threats of random violence that we all worry about.  (Michael Shannon also features as a rogue cop in an absorbingly odd performance). The novel could also be read as a threat to Adams herself, seeing how a similar character and her daughter suffer extreme violence in the book (this interpretation also meshes with the end of the film which also involves degradation).  Another reading might see the novel as a documentation of the author’s own pain and suffering at the hands of Adams.  In any event, the film doesn’t provide any insights into Gyllenhaal’s motivations and deals primarily with Adams’ psychological reactions and states.  Viewers are left to decide for themselves whether she has the correct take on reality (or unreality).  In a grander way, Ford may also want us to question the role of art/fiction in our lives and the motivations that underlie its creation but this theme is less successfully implemented.