Entertainment
Amy Adams' Sexy, R-Rated Thriller On Netflix Is A Brutal Revenge Story
By Robert Scucci
| Published
2016’s Nocturnal Animals does the unthinkable by boasting a story-within-a-story framework without ever coming off as patronizing or confusing. Adapted from the 1993 Austin Wright novel Tony and Susan, it respects the source material by bringing its essence to life through a visual medium and has zero fat in its storytelling. What impressed me most was how the film actually plays like a novel. Scenes jump from the main narrative to the in-universe fiction seamlessly, as if you’re picking up a great book, reading a flashback sequence, and then being thrust back into the present the second you turn the page and start a new chapter, complete with the context needed to keep the story moving.
A dark romantic thriller with a gritty neo-noir bent, Nocturnal Animals sees Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) and Edward Sheffield (Jake Gyllenhaal) come to terms with their lives as fiction becomes reality, the past bleeds into the present, and regret takes on a life of its own through art and the lingering question of what could have been if things had turned out differently.
The Breakup And The Book
We first learn about Susan Morrow’s present-day life in Nocturnal Animals, and it’s an unhappy one despite her success. Susan owns an art gallery, and her latest installation is a resounding success and the talk of the town. At home, however, her life leaves much to be desired. Her husband Hutton Morrow (Armie Hammer) constantly travels for work, cheats on her, and remains emotionally absent from their relationship.
When Susan receives a package from her ex-husband Edward, whom she hasn’t spoken to in 20 years, her curiosity is piqued. Inside is a manuscript for the novel he’s trying to publish, Nocturnal Animals. Not only does the title reference the nickname he gave her when they were married, but the book itself is dedicated to her. Feeling unfulfilled in both her career and her current marriage, she cracks the book open to see what he has to say and is immediately sucked in.
The Story Within The Story
In Nocturnal Animals, the fictional novel depicted in Nocturnal Animals, we’re introduced to Tony Hastings (also portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal), who is traveling along a remote West Texas road with his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and daughter India (Ellie Bamber). They are accosted by three thugs, Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), Lou (Karl Glusman), and Turk (Robert Aramayo), who kidnap Laura and India after terrorizing the family on the dark highway.
Tony, separated from his wife and daughter during the encounter, has no idea what has happened to them after he is dragged away and left stranded in the middle of the night. He eventually learns the horrifying truth that Laura and India have been brutally assaulted and murdered.
Grieving the loss of his wife and daughter, Tony seeks help from Detective Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon), who reveals he has terminal lung cancer and will soon be forced into retirement. When pressed by Detective Andes, who’s got an axe to grind and nothing to lose, Tony becomes convinced that pursuing revenge by any means necessary is the only path forward because doing things by the book will never bring him the justice his family deserves. Dead set on identifying the men who destroyed his family and killing them himself, Tony’s grief slowly transforms into rage, and the hunt begins.
As Susan reads through Nocturnal Animals, memories of her tumultuous relationship with Edward resurface. Here we see a much younger, well put together Jake Gyllenhaal who is wide-eyed and idealistic because they still have their entire lives ahead of them. While we don’t fully grasp the symbolism embedded in the novel until the film’s third-act reveal, it becomes increasingly clear why their relationship fell apart and why Edward is suddenly so eager to reconnect with Susan after decades of silence.
Not A Baby-Bird Endeavor
With so many layers in its narrative structure, Nocturnal Animals is far from a passive watch. It’s obvious that the grief depicted in the novel within the film serves as a metaphor for Edward’s past relationship with Susan, among other things, but we aren’t given all the details right away, nor should we be. If you watch the film a second time, you’ll notice a breadcrumb trail of clues that probably slipped past you during your first viewing.
Despite its many layers, watching Nocturnal Animals is a fluid and visceral experience. Since we are seeing events through Edward’s eyes as he wrote them in his novel, which is dark, violent, and sexually graphic at times, none of the more heightened sequences feel out of place. The fictional narrative plays like pulpy crime fiction designed to provoke this exact reaction through its brooding tension and grimy atmosphere.
At some level, any seasoned thriller fan will recognize where this story is headed, but the road getting there will haunt you long after the credits roll. To experience the story within the story for yourself, you can stream Nocturnal Animals on Paramount+ as of this writing.