With his second feature, fashion designer-turned-filmmaker Tom Ford has taken things to a more empathetic and emotionally challenging level than he did in his debut 'A Single Man'.
Based on the novel Tony and Susan by Austin Wright, Nocturnal Animals is an intriguing film essay that examines the relationship between truth and fiction in a dark neo-noir style.
The only out of place moment is provided by a baroque title sequence in which naked fat women cavort in US flag hats, waving sparklers - it's an interesting series of images but it feels like Ford overindulging in something that's fascinating to him but not necessary to the story.
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The point of the sequence is to introduce us to Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), an elegant, glacial gallery owner whose life of clean, sharp-cornered surfaces reflects her sophisticated, one-percenter public image. Supremely rich and married to the cold but handsome square-jawed Hutton (Armie Hammer), who is as dissatisfied as she is with their seemingly perfect marriage; Susan is nervous and unhappy in her expensive skin.
Returning from the exhibition opening she's surprised to receive a copy of a novel called Nocturnal Animals written by her not completely forgotten first husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal).
As she begins to read the noirish tale we enter the second layer of the film, a visual re-enactment of the book in which Tony (Gyllenhaal again), his wife Laura (Isla Fischer) and their teenage daughter India (Ellie Bamber) have their nice relocation road trip viciously disrupted when their car is forced off the road by the menacing redneck Ray (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) and two of his friends. The sequence, which serves as the central piece of the tale, is handled with terrifying tension and will stay with you long after its terrible conclusion.
As Susan reads her ex-husband's book she tries to fathom how things went wrong with their relationship and how much of the book may be about her, which provides the film's third layer.
After his family is driven off the road Tony teams up with local cop Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) to bring the culprits to justice.
WATCH the trailer for 'Nocturnal Animals'
With a creeping uncomfortable score by Abel Korzeniowski, the final product is reminiscent of David Lynch while not having to resort to the obviously psychological or overtly surreal to make its points.
Adams is icy but true and Shannon's shifty-eyed, powder-keg uncertainty has never been used quite to such full effect.
Ford has brought to life a very literary story that intercuts between narratives and emotions and poses deeply pertinent questions about the power of fiction to rectify real-life wrongs.
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