Nocturnal Animals (2016)

[NutMeg]

Quote

An art gallery owner is haunted by her ex-husband's novel, a violent thriller she interprets as a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.

Latest/second Tom Ford's opus. It's really, really haunting and I'd love to discuss it with other posters, so here goes.

(First time I've ever started a thread, so hope that is what we're supposed to do)

[Perfect Xero]

Not a comment on the movie itself, but the duplicity involved in the marketing has been stunning, with TV spots using the book portions and editing to make it look like the entire movie is Jake Gyllenhaal trying to rescue Amy Adams from kidnappers.

[GaT]

1 hour ago, Perfect Xero said:

Not a comment on the movie itself, but the duplicity involved in the marketing has been stunning, with TV spots using the book portions and editing to make it look like the entire movie is Jake Gyllenhaal trying to rescue Amy Adams from kidnappers.

Huh, that's exactly what I thought the movie was about. I haven't read the book or heard anything about the plot, so all my information came from the commercials.

[caracas1914]

So after after only 2 movies  Tom Ford has such a strong visual style that is his signature.  I dunno, I admired alot of the film , but the pot boilerish West Texas scenes almost seemed high sheen parody of what red neck nightmare would be.

Amy Adams art gallery world seemed parody the other extreme yet so much of it was played so serious.

[methodwriter85]

I really wanted to like this, and the visual style was really gorgeous, but it just felt so vapid. I get what it was trying to be- a haunting story about a man who entices his former lover into reading his magnum opus, getting her to fall in love with him again, and then rejecting her. And the story-within-the-story is about a man who is driven to revenge that it leads to his own ruination.

I get that, but it was done in such a plodding, long manner. When the credits came on, someone in the audience said, "Is that it? Maybe it we continue sitting here, the actual ending will come up."

[AimingforYoko]

Saw this today, thought about the parallels between the novel and what happened to Edward and Susan. Obviously the loss of Tony's wife and daughter were the parallel to Susan leaving and terminating the pregnancy. So Susan was Ray? And instead of taking physical revenge like Tony, Edward takes emotional revenge?

Oh, and kudos to Tom Ford for finally taking advantage of the physical similarities between Amy Adams and Isla Fisher.

Edited February 5, 2017 by AimingforYoko

[Cementhead]

I just watched this last night on netflix.  It was ... an experience.  The scenes with Tony and family were very difficult to get through.  I kept wanting to turn it off because it was a tough thing to watch.  But I kept sticking with it because it was so visually appealing; especially the scenes with the beautiful Amy Adams living her beautiful, shiny rich life as Susan. 

As a fashion follower, I was excited to see this because of Tom Ford.  I have yet to see A Single Man but will seek it out after having watched this.  This was one of those movies that I wanted to quit a bunch of times but in the end, I am glad I stuck with it. Even though the ending was so unsatisfactory at the time of viewing.  But after giving it some thought; that was the perfect ending because that is exactly what Edward wanted to Susan to feel.  Unsatisfied, hopeful, wanting more.

And as usual, Jake Gyllenhaal, a guy who I find so ordinary and unassuming when he is being Jake Gyllenhaal, blew me away with his performance.  This guy is underrated as an actor and deserves more accolades.  His performance in Nightcrawler was out of this world.

Edited February 17, 2019 by Cementhead
Clarification.

[BlackberryJam]

So I just caught this tonight. I’d not seen it when it first came out, so the Armie Hammer situation seems to have changed my perspective. 

The scenes with Hammer were...almost as terrifying as the scenes on the side of the road. 

I finished this thinking how terrified, miserable and unimportant all of the women in the story were. The wife and daughter were vehicles for Tony’s pain. Susan was married to a Armie Hammer (and my brain was screaming psychopath) and the whole film was really about Edward taking his revenge on her.

So much of this film preyed on my fears. Being forced off the road, being taken by violent and cruel men, being raped, being murdered, being in a relationship with a man who is lying to me (and may want to torture me), having an ex hate me so much he wants revenge and being unimportant because it’s all about the men in my life anyway.

Perhaps I just wasn’t in the right mindset for this.

It was well-acted, certainly. It’ll stay with me. I’ll remember it. And I’ll never want to watch it again. 

[Inquisitionist]

On 3/1/2021 at 7:58 PM, BlackberryJam said:

The scenes with Hammer were...almost as terrifying as the scenes on the side of the road. 

This must be where I stopped watching.  Scenes of impending horror/doom are not my thing.

[BlackberryJam]

1 hour ago, Inquisitionist said:

This must be where I stopped watching.  Scenes of impending horror/doom are not my thing.

It's not though...Armie Hammer is not supposed to be terrifying, just an adulterous husband. But knowing what we know know about him, I couldn't see those scenes as anything but horrifying.

Of note, those things in the film that Tom Ford wanted to say were women's fears, turning into our mothers, choosing a life based on our own careers rather than being supportive wives and therefore missing out on marriage to a great artist, aren't things that concerns me at all. I have no desire to sacrifice my career and life in a shack just to support some dude who can't manage to get his shit together enough to get a decent paying job. And I'm fucking sick of the trope that our mothers are such horrible people that we don't want to become them while some how fathers are admirable heroes. Fuck that.

This was a movie about man's idea of what a woman thinks and feels. 

[supposebly]

21 minutes ago, BlackberryJam said:

Of note, those things in the film that Tom Ford wanted to say were women's fears, turning into our mothers, choosing a life based on our own careers rather than being supportive wives and therefore missing out on marriage to a great artist, aren't things that concerns me at all. I have no desire to sacrifice my career and life in a shack just to support some dude who can't manage to get his shit together enough to get a decent paying job. And I'm fucking sick of the trope that our mothers are such horrible people that we don't want to become them while some how fathers are admirable heroes. Fuck that.

This was a movie about man's idea of what a woman thinks and feels. 

That sounds like I haven't missed much. I kept thinking I would like to see it. Now, I don't anymore. This sounds like the opposite of my worries (not even fears). Thanks!

Edited March 5, 2021 by supposebly

[Inquisitionist]

Sorry, I meant I stopped watching during the car scene where Jake and Amy are being tailed in the dead of night.  

[Cranberry]

I hated it. I'm just over stories where women are raped and/or murdered so a man has a reason to go on a revenge quest. Amy Adams should have thrown that book in a fire and thanked herself for breaking up with Jake Gyllenhaal when she did.

[AimingforYoko]

8 hours ago, Cranberry said:

Amy Adams should have thrown that book in a fire and thanked herself for breaking up with Jake Gyllenhaal when she did.

Didn't he break up with her because she cheated on him with Armie Hammer?

[Cranberry]

I believe the next scene in their flashback timeline is him watching her and Armie Hammer in the hospital parking lot after she aborts the baby, which is how he finds out about both the pregnancy and the new guy. I don't feel like rewatching any of this, but this summary seems to back that up.