The Claws Come Out, by Bob Connally

Tom Ford had long been a highly successful fashion designer when in 2005, at the age of 43, he chose to start his own film production company. Four years later he made his directorial debut with the sorrowful character study A Single Man. While it’s no surprise the film was visually striking, what was most impressive was the subtlety, sensitivity, and focus on character that he displayed in his first feature.

Now, seven years later, Ford has made his second film, Nocturnal Animals. Given Ford’s background and ongoing career success in fashion, the fact that he was returning to the director’s chair after such a lengthy hiatus suggested that he wasn’t just making a movie to pay the bills or because filmmaking is just in his blood. He didn’t just have a story to tell, he had a story he needed to tell. At first, it is unclear as to why he or anyone else would want to tell this story (stories, really). But after a frankly bizarre opening credits sequence and the initial sense that the stories unfolding before us will be deeply unpleasant, Nocturnal Animals ultimately becomes an experience that gets into your head, under your skin, and that stays with you.

The owner of a Los Angeles art gallery, Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is disappointed with her latest opening, is being kept at arm’s length by her business-driven husband Hutton (Armie Hammer, playing the kind of guy who would actually have Hutton as a first name), and is unfulfilled in seemingly every aspect of her life. She is surprised when out of the blue she receives a completed manuscript for her estranged ex-huband Tony’s (Jake Gyllenhaal) first novel. Tony has dedicated his book to her and named it Nocturnal Animals, which is how he described her during their brief marriage nearly twenty years earlier.

Not content to simply show Susan’s reaction to the story interspersed with flashbacks of the doomed relationship, the film brings Tony’s novel to life and it is a brutal tale. Early on in the reading of it, Susan remarks it is “devastating.” Little does she know what lies ahead for the characters or for herself.

With a screenplay written by Ford and based upon the 1993 novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright, Nocturnal Animals has a story within its story that digs its claws not just into Susan but into us as well. It has a far greater impact as we see it unfold than the portion of the film set in the “real” world, but that’s not a flaw in the filmmaking here. It’s the point. This is a movie all about how people relate to fiction and just why it can have such a powerful effect. Tony’s novel also informs the “real” world story in a way that gives it a greater power when it’s all said and done. Ford helps himself on that front with smart casting. Gyllenhaal plays not just Tony but the main character of his novel, Edward, a man who is powerless to stop the rape and murder of his wife and daughter. There’s a cleverness to the casting of Edward’s wife as well. Isla Fisher, an actress people often confuse with Amy Adams, plays the role, immediately making it clear who that character represents.

Gyllenhaal does really exceptional work in both performances, each man having had their sensitivity perceived as weakness and taken advantage of in the cruelest of ways. In the fictional world, Gyllenhaal shares the majority of his screen time with an outstanding (as always) Michael Shannon. Shannon plays Detective Bobby Andes as the sort of character who feels distinctly- though subtly enough- like a fictional character. He comes off like a writer’s creation and it works beautifully. A fascinating kind of friendship develops between Tony and Bobby through the film that is fun to watch in a movie that is decidedly not fun to watch otherwise.

In my recent review of Arrival, I praised Amy Adams as the greatest acting talent of this generation and she does nothing to prove me wrong here. Just as she did in Arrival, she plays a woman carrying an incredible amount on her shoulders who internalizes her emotions. The characters in the films are worlds apart but in either case, it’s a tricky thing to pull off in conveying those emotions to an audience. Adams once again shows she can do absolutely anything as an actress.

Nocturnal Animals is a challenging film both intellectually and emotionally, with its stunning imagery serving the film’s story and characters in meaningful ways. A lot of credit is due to cinematographer Seamus McGarvey and the production and costume designers. They help Ford create two distinct movies within one and ultimately tie them together. The early part of this film is difficult to get through and it’s certainly no picnic after that, but once it begins to click, Nocturnal Animals becomes an absorbing experience which cuts deep.