Nocturnal Animals (2016)

Nocturnal Animals is a dark and devilishly stylish thriller from Tom Ford, who knows a thing or two about style having worked as creative director for both Gucci and Yves Saint Lauren in the past. Nocturnal Animals is one of those movies as after you watch you leave being stunned and thinking about life in somewhat of a dark manner seeing that many times it's in the form of regret and tragedy.

The plot centers around Susan Morrow( Amy Adams)who's an elegant high class society L.A. art gallery owner who kind of finds herself in a state of doubt. She's married now to a new guy yet, it's when Susan receives a novel from her ex-husband Ed Sheffield(Jake Gyllenhaal)that brings back the memories of doubt and guilt. As with each page that Susan reads and turns this violent thriller becomes more and more of a symbolic tale that seems like a memory of her life with Ed. As it's clear Ed set out to bring fright to Susan thru the pages of a novel, as it has Susan doing a flashback of her time with Ed.


The performances from the actors were stellar. Watching Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson on screen was captivating. The actors had immersed themselves in their roles. I believed every actor's performance during the duration of the movie. However, Michael Shannon's performance had stuck out to me the most. Shannon's character was mesmerizing and menacing.

It was a dark and brutal movie, and very Gone Girl-like. I have mixed feelings seeing this kind of movie. I love the ambitious script of this movie. I really like A Single Man by Tom Ford that why I was watching this movie.

The cast is good enough reason to watch it. Everybody adds something worthwhile to the experience, even Sheen and Fisher. Shannon brings his usual magnetic mix of cool and creepy. Gyllenhaal manages to move between having balls and ball-less state without turning unbelievable or too heroic.

On the negative parts, the movie let me wondering about aspects of the characters, who were they and stuff. Also there was a sub- plot no one cared about. I understand the director did it to slow down the movie but he could have done a better job there and lastly the end was a bit sloppy and fast contrary to the rest of the movie. In the end it just felt like he run out of time and he closed it up really fast.

On the whole if you want to watch that movie you must be prepared that it is going to be hard on you, and in the end you will have many questions unanswered that you will need to think for yourself which is exactly the beauty of the film. If you are not into that kind of movies just don't watch it, no point there

7.7/10 - IMDb
73% - Rotten Tomatoes
5/5 - The Guardian
7/10 - Verdict