No. 15 Nocturnal Animals (2016) 73 of 100

 

If ever a film grabbed your attention from the first moment it has to be this one. Of course overweight and elderly naked majorettes may not be your thing but you can’t say it’s not different. The titles roll over these dancing ladies and we soon learn that we are in a gallery and witnessing an art installation. Gallery owner Amy Adams is unhappy with her husband’s non- appearance and with his barely disguised philandering.

Things perk up however when she receives a manuscript from her first love and former husband Edward, who is played by Jake Gyllenhaal. She is flattered that the book is dedicated to her and looks forward to his proposed dinner date the following week.

As she reads the book the film dissolves into the book’s narrative that sees Jake and Amy on a road trip with their daughter. The character names are changed, but as we experience the book from Amy’s viewpoint she clearly sees the characters as herself and her former beau.

The book is as dark as pitch and soon the characters are being chased by a group of Texan red-necks. Jake is left emasculated when the bandits take off with Amy and their teenage daughter as he cowers behind some rocks. He makes it to the police the next morning and the case is taken on by detective Andes, ably played by our man Shannon. Andes has lung cancer and Shannon has gone full method by losing a lot of weight for the role. He has a moustache and smokes a lot whilst sporting a nice cowboy hat.

With very little detection they find the bodies of the two women who have been raped and murdered and left naked on a red sofa. Jakes is a bit upset, but not that much really. As the story progresses we pop in to Amy’s real life and see her treat her underlings poorly and check out a large painting which is just the word ‘REVENGE’ – that may be a subtle clue for later, as was her vision of a murderer in her colleague's nanny cam footage.

The timeline jumps around and we see the fledging and doomed romance of Amy and Jake which peters out when she loses faith in his prospects and takes on the more reliable, and rich, Armie Hammer. The final coup de grace of the relationship is when she has an abortion of Jake’s baby. Still this was 19 years ago – who remembers?

Back in the book a year has passed and one of the three killers has been caught and another killed in a robbery. Jake identifies the last suspect who then gets off on a technicality. How far is he willing to go to see justice administered and can he rely on the cancer ridden cop who is egging him on?

I enjoyed this film but it did feel somewhat slight. The book scenes were well rendered but there was no peril as this was all fiction within the structure of the film. There was an element of ‘what would you do’ and Shannon does well as the world weary cop who wasn’t shy of helping the wheels of justice turn that little bit more freely.

Amy didn’t demand much in the way of empathy and I get that was the point. She was always filmed in stark light and came across as cold and distant. She had some hopes of a reconciliation with Jake but had she understood some of the book’s subtext, I doubt she would have made her restaurant reservation.

The whole enterprise was a cathartic one for Jake who clearly thought revenge was dish served very cold indeed. The structure of the film kept me interested and there were plenty of interesting and thought provoking scenes – and one of a man wiping his ass too!

Shannon got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for this film which was a surprise to me; not because he wasn’t good, it was just that he was only in a few scenes. He certainly beat Jake in the acting stakes, but so did Kick-Ass too!

The film is worth a look, not least for it’s ensemble cast which included Michael Sheen and Laura Linney, but also for it’s interesting structure and for the intrigue it offered.

When is Shannon-On? - 40.25

Outcome? Dying of cancer and facing some career issues

Film 4/5

Shannon Stars 4/5