'Nocturnal Animals' A Review

Nocturnal Animals is a story-within-a-story melodramatic thriller about the ennui of rich and stylish LA artist Susan Morrow(Amy Adams) as she grapples with the infidelity of her husband Hutton(Armie Hammer) and plunges into the manuscript of her ex-husband's novel also titled Nocturnal Animals. The narrative shifts from Susan dramatically supine on beautiful furniture reading the novel to the actual plot of the novel to flashbacks filling out Susan and her ex-husband Edward's(Jake Gyllenhaal) brief and overwrought marriage.

Adams is stunningly misused as the vapid and emotionally uncomprehending lead. As one of the greatest actors currently working, not to mention her excellent turn in just last weeks Arrival, her terrible performance can be fully attributed to an obvious and spurious script and contrived directing. Gyllenhaal is not awful as Edward/Tony(the father in the novel) but this seems like his latest in a long list of tortured Oscar nomination grabs. Hammer, although given a thankless part, is bland to the point of irritation. As time goes on the promise he showed in The Social Network seems more and more to have been a fluke. Aaron Taylor-Johnson as the novel's villain lacks any menace or dimension, a wasted effort, another "handsome" actor whose early promise(Kick-Ass) has yet to bear fruit. Michael Shannon as the novel's detective is the one bright spot of the entire film, imbuing the character with his always constant immediacy, wry humor, danger, and emotional complexity.

The main problem with the film is that the story is uninteresting, trite, recycling. The Adam's character and its machinations are uncompelling, the character is rich, oblivious, and pretentious. The novel narrative is an overused and off putting plot device- hooligans assault a man's wife and child while he is rendered impotent then seeks revenge. In this day and age that kind of plot device is boring and offensive. The characters lack dimension and emotion and the story in which the navigate we've seen countless times. Everyone looks very good though.

All style, no substance. Worst of the year contender.

Don't See It.