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With a creative like fashion designer turned film-maker Tom Ford<\/span><\/a> at the helm, his second big-screen venture was always going to be another thing of great beauty to watch. Whereas A Single Man<\/em><\/a> still deals with ugliness tainting its glossy surface, Nocturnal Animals<\/em><\/a> goes a step further and is more visceral, part exquisite art display, part bleak crime thriller \u2013 as though Ford is dipping his film-making toe into another genre to test his skills, while still being cushioned by his trademark chic.<\/p>\n Amy Adams<\/span><\/a> plays high society art gallery owner Susan, whose marriage is crumbling, as is her sense of being. Her life changes after she receives a copy of her ex-husband\u2019s novel, a violent thriller that seems to be based on their past \u2013 a veiled threat and a symbolic revenge tale.<\/p>\n Adams was a Ford leading lady waiting to happen. Her looks, pose and expressive nature wonderfully relay all the emotions that Susan is going through, amplified by the \u2018pretty bird in a gilded cage\u2019 scenario she finds herself in. There is a sense of foreboding in the calm of her perfect existence, as though she challenges the status quo in order to feel alive again when all around her feels stagnant. Adams effortlessly carries these scenes until the next dramatic revelation from the fictional side of the story \u2013 the recreation of the novel she is reading.<\/p>\n Jake Gyllenhaal<\/span><\/a> is both the ex-husband in flashbacks and the novel\u2019s grief-stricken and tormented protagonist, being no stranger to such dark roles from his previous work. It\u2019s here in the film that Ford\u2019s biggest contrasts happen, even injecting bouts of displaced beauty in the midst of depravity and despair. As solid as Gyllenhaal is in the role, it\u2019s actually Aaron Taylor-Johnson<\/span><\/a> as perp Ray Marcus who utterly steals the scenes – definitely a defining moment for him as he fleshes out every odious, unpredictable and terrifying characteristic of Marcus. Michael Shannon<\/span><\/a> as cynical old-school detective Bobby Andes brings up the rear of exceptional casting, an actor who gives the film a gravitas and 1950s-style essence in his acting style. As stunning as the Adams scenes are, Ford has proved that he is more than capable of producing a thriller without the sheen.<\/p>\n What comes across with Nocturnal Animals<\/em> is a passion for a project, attention to detail and dramatic Hitchcockian production values. The intensity sometimes dips as we are thrust back into the banality of Susan\u2019s priviledged existence, though simply serves to tease us and keep us in awe of the next part of the gruesome puzzle being exposed \u2013 ironically, where the film\u2019s true passions and sentiment stem from.<\/p>\n 4\/5 stars<\/strong><\/p>\n By @Filmgazer<\/p>\n