Fashion Designer and filmmaker Tom Ford makes a vivid and haunting romantic thriller that shocks and scares you as it slowly bleeds your heart dry. Treat yourself to the sinfully entertaining NOCTURNAL ANIMALS from Focus Features and Writer/Director Tom Ford. Click through for my full review.
Chance and luck seem to play a unique pair in Tom Ford's second feature. The film showcases how brief encounters completely can impact a person's life. Whether seen in our lead character Susan Morrow, a striking performance from Amy Adams. Or in her dual love interests Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Hutton Morrow played by Armie Hammer. It's Susan's tough betrayal that unleashes the lengthy retribution by Gyllenhaal's Sheffield. Overall Tom Ford's mixed up time frames and pov choices help keep the mystery of what is all going on in the movie. All the while you are also treated to a haunting story plot with-in the film that crosses over into their lives. You can see the duality even in the film's marketing. Check out the poster.
The movie never shys away from mixing and mingling scenes, sounds and shots so that you are always curious who's tale are you watching. The plots differ in time and in place but the emotions bleed into all the locals. Vibrant New York and desolate West Texas are giving the same cinematic love and thus both appear beautifully in the picturersque cinematography of DP Seamus McGarvey. The film looks incredible on the big screen. It harps to an old timey noir feel, but it's colors are so rich that you can't lose the modern feel of the art scene that Susan Morrow (and Tom Ford…) are immersed. The duality seeps into all elements of the film. Now the really fun bits of the film are in the horrorfic book plot that is Edward Sheffield's manuscript that he sends to his beloved ex-wife. The tragic and haunting tale is brutal and violent allowing for the film to take on a new level of suspense. Most of the horror is helped by a tremendous performance by Aaron Taylor-Johnson. The brit kid is a real fun SOB!
And now for a shout to Michael Shannon. Mr. Shannon is one of our finest actors. The dude never has delivered a bad performance and he is tremendous in Nocturnal Animals.
The film is a wonderfully paced thriller that doesn't allow you a moment to grasp what will come next. The constant fear and lack of understanding makes Tom Ford's second feature a real winner. Catch this film if you can!
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