Writer-producer-director plus fashion designer (seriously - he's been the creative director at both Gucci and Yves St Laurent) Tom Ford's most recent feature gets a Blu-ray and DVD release from Fabulous Films.
Art gallery owner Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) runs a successful business and is married to handsome Hutton (Armie Hammer) but still feels her life is empty. She received a package from writer Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal), her ex-husband of nineteen years ago. It's an advance copy of his new novel Nocturnal Animals, dedicated to her and accompanied by a note claiming she inspired its plot.
As Susan begins to read she becomes immersed (as do we) in the tragic and violent tale of Tony Hastings (Gyllenhaal again) and his wife (Isla Fisher) and daughter (Ellie Bamber) who are set upon by three thugs on a stretch of lonely road in Texas. Only Tony survives the night and he ends up working with a cancer-riddled lawman (Michael Shannon) to track down the men and exact bloody revenge.
Switching via a number of clever transition devices between 'real' life and the novel, NOCTURNAL ANIMALS does a fine job of depicting Susan's world as empty and listless while Tony's world is filled with colour and energy, albeit of a most violent kind. So vivid (and violent) are the scenes from the novel that's it's often difficult to remember that we are being presented with fiction as it's a far more engaging narrative than Susan's.
Casting is excellent, with some welcome turns from Michael Sheen, Andrea Riseborough, Jena Malone and Laura Linney, with Aaron Taylor-Johnson a standout as a memorably terrifying villain. All these performances plus Ford's skill mean that NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is an intense and at times gruelling watch, all in the very best way. Fabulous Films' disc has an 11 minute making of with interviews with cast and crew. It's brief but worth watching.
Tom Ford's NOCTURNAL ANIMALS is out on Blu-ray and DVD from Fabulous Films on Monday 10th July 2023
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