Elie Wiesel once said: "The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference."
The absence of love is the perfect opponent to being in love. Having this concept in hand, Tom Ford, a renowned fashion designer bounces back with his second outing, Nocturnal Animals. Maybe due to the nature of his other job, the product here is stylish, metallic with artistically exclusive designs. The posh is felt!
Right of the bat, Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), whose last name rhymes with sorrow, is unhappy. Unsatisfied. There's problem in her marriage. She's experiencing lack of time spent with her partner. Jerks all over the relationship. When a manuscript arrives from her 1st husband, a history is confirmed. Something did happen in this lady's life, which we are about to learn in this 2-hour course.
She begins reading the novel sent to her, and from here on, we jump back and forth between her past, present & the fictional story's proceedings. These three will merge to have a common melting point, we suspect. Here we have an individualistic script that does not follow the 3 Act Structure. It has its own approach of telling you the story it wants to tell.
To have a visual representation of the novel as Susan is getting deep inside the skin of the characters she's reading about is an innovative idea on its own. In this devastating drama, we see a weak, fragile & timid Tony Hastings (Jake Gyllenhaal) whose family gets harassed, abducted and eventually raped & killed by a bunch of low time criminals. You'll come to a point where an intense roadside commotion will be going on, and it's too real & convulsing that it strangles you by the neck! Very depressing to watch, in a good way. Deaths of the two however, could have been allowed some time before its reveal. This novel's part of the main storyline is the most riveting piece, reminding you of No Country for Old Men!
Looking to seek justice, Tony teams up with Detective Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) in locating the crime-doers. Although uncuffing the culprits prior to shooting & Ray Marcus choosing the most obvious spot for hideout are silly plot problems, the film does harness your anger & lures you into a proper revenge mode. While Jake Gyllenhaal is really good at breaking out emotions, Michael Shannon is aesthetic on his own! Special mention must be given to Aaron Taylor-Johnson who played the sinister gang leader Ray Marcus.
While all these are happening in the fiction, what is it doing to our lead lady Susan here in real life? She's very into the story with a disturbed mind. As how we would react after a bad dream or reading up on a tragedy, she calls to check on her own family's wellbeing. She begins to look back at her own wrongdoings in the haunting past. How unfair and brutal has she been towards her ex-husband Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal)? She starts falling for him again. She feels guilty that she should have stayed with him during the previous hard times, and prevent any of the changes in life from taking place. When she is brought back to a moment alike the couple's first meeting years ago, Edward doesn't show up. And the film ends.
That's when all strikes! This is a revenge tale. During the time of their relationship, Edward's a soft, frail man, similar to Tony in the novel. Susan didn't find his writings entirely enticing. She has always told him not to put himself as the protagonist and pen an anecdote as it doesn't work. Slowly, their marriage begins to crumble. She falls for the handsome & dashing Hutton (Armie Hammer). She aborts Edward's kid just to be with her new found love. All these have scarred Edward to a point where there's no turning back. Just like Tony, he reaches a boiling point where he wishes he could have saved his family from straying away from him and prevented the entire occurrences from happening. In order to make Susan feel the same what he has gone through, he sends over his next outing. Oppositely, she likes his writing this time. She pictures Edward as the main character & was fascinated by the novel. But at the same time, she experienced the immense pain felt by him. These are victory points for Edward. Just when she thought she could reconcile with her 1st husband, he replies her love with indifference. Similar to what she has done decades ago on him. This is a very straightforward & decidedly intelligent notion!
Past and present physical looks do clearly differ in this film to make the timeline clear, and it's awesome! Most of the cuts are awkwardly quick. Imagery wise, the way the screenplay connects all three stories is good. Certain scenes do not require music, but this is an arguable point since the genre is neo-noir. Also, there's something to think about here. Did the events in the novel actually transpired in Edward's life, since 19 years have passed?