Nocturnal Animals: To Susan, To Those Who Give Up On Their True Love

Spoilers

"When you love someone, you have to be careful with it. You might never get it again.”

The line that appears at the end of the trailer is the core of the film. "Nocturnal Animals" seems to be a beautifully designed and profound parable, warning the audience in the most beautiful and cruellest way: if you are lucky enough to have a soulmate, never give him/her up for money or worldly views.

As the creator of a fashion empire, Tom Ford is avant-garde and even radical. However, his choice in movies is very old-school. He believes that unlike the ever-changing fashion industry, movies are time immortalization and light condensation; once filming is complete, it becomes an untouchable existence. For this reason, everything on screen is sacred, and true art should be eternal.

"Nocturnal Animals" is Tom Ford's second movie production, based on the original novel "Tony and Susan" by Austin Wright. Susan (played by Amy Adams) is experiencing marital discord when she receives a manuscript from her ex-husband Edward (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), whom she has not seen in almost twenty years. Reading the story, Susan falls into memories of the past, and the thrilling plot described in the manuscript intertwines with reality. The male protagonist of the novel Tony (also played by Jake Gyllenhaal) fits seamlessly with her memory of her ex-husband Edward, and the heartbreak and torment suffered by Tony seem to be the perfect mirror of her betrayal of Edward.

Tom Ford wasn't the first director to play with "picture-in-picture" within a film, but he certainly executed it brilliantly. Needless to say, this also couldn't have been done without Jake and Amy's outstanding performances. Within "Nocturnal Animals," there are three interconnected worlds: the materialistic Los Angeles, the wild Texas, and the snowy New York that had fallen several years before. The three timelines are carefully crafted and edited by the director, skilfully allowing the audience to empathize with the female protagonist Susan as she resonates with the fictional world created within the novel. As I watched, I constantly wondered what had actually happened? Did her regret and his revenge turn out exactly what she had imagined? And their final outcome was both unexpected and justified.

Jake Gyllenhaal mentioned in an interview that when Tom Ford invited him, he was in fact hesitant. He likes to shoot authentic stories and hopes that the audience will have a deeper connection after watching the movie, rather than just being attracted to its beautiful visuals. Although his concerns were allayed when Jake talked to Tom Ford later on, his initial worries were not entirely unfounded: Tom Ford's name itself carries a high level of aestheticism, and one may easily form an innocent bias towards thinking that what he creates are glitzy but hollow fashion commercials. In my opinion, Tom Ford at the time of "Nocturnal Animals" was much more mature than during “A Single Man." Aside from Colin Firth's award-winning performance, the colour shifts and atmosphere control in “A Single Man" were commendable, while "Nocturnal Animals" is characterized by subtle metaphors and seamless storytelling between the three interwoven storylines, which fully showcased his directorial abilities. Next, I would like to discuss some interesting details in "Nocturnal Animals".

1. Title

The word "animals" in title is pluralized. "Nocturnal Animals" is Tom Ford's nickname for Susan, and there is obviously more than one "Susan" in this world. In the long, dark night, these nocturnal animals are lonely, materially wealthy but mentally empty, which is exactly what Tom Ford wants to express about modern urbanite's state of mind.

2. Bloody Omen

When Susan tries to open the manuscript sent by her ex-husband, she accidentally cuts her finger on paper, which is a clever and direct hint that echoes the bloody violence of the upcoming novel content and makes the audience realize that their once loving relationship ended in an extremely extreme way.

3. Red-haired girl

Susan and her daughter in the real world, as well as Tony's family in the novel world, all have red hair. Even the character played by Isla Fisher as Laura, who is supposed to be Tony's wife, looks very similar to Amy Adams. This is actually a clever psychological hint that emphasizes the mirror relationship between the real world and the fictional world again. Susan read the novel and when she found out that Tony had discovered his wife and daughter were dead, she immediately called her own daughter. There was almost an identical composition in front of and after this scene, one peaceful and gentle, the other bloody and terrifying, and the audience couldn't help but be curious - who was Susan's beautiful daughter? Was Susan's child from her previous marriage? Did her injury to Edward have anything to do with this child?

4. Villain

Aaron Taylor-Johnson brings a handsome yet neurotic eccentric to life. The small action of hitting the roof was given a close-up, with long dirty nails and rings that immediately gave the character an eerie feeling. His pure evilness can sometimes be fascinating.

5. Writers Write About Themselves

During their argument, Edward angrily reveals a not-so-pretty truth: writers always write about themselves. For artists, their best source of inspiration is always themselves. Tom Ford once said that George in "A Single Man" was his own embodiment, and the entire film was a love letter he wrote to his lover. What about "Nocturnal Animal"? Many characters in "Nocturnal Animal" have Tom Ford's influence, and he empathizes with Susan's wrong choices and subsequent regrets, while the sensitive and romantic character of Edward, who was born in rough Texas, naturally projects Tom Ford himself.

6. Green Car

The green car appears in the background during the scene where Edward and Susan split up actually appeared in the novel world earlier. It is almost symbolic, and both men (Tony/Edward) have lost the one they loved in both scenes.

If you observe more closely, Aaron Taylor-Johnson also wears bright green shoes, and at the end of the movie, Susan chooses to wear a green dress to meet her ex-husband Edward. Green seems to represent bad meaning in the movie.

7. Susan’s Two Men in Her Life

After having an abortion, Susan cuddled up tightly with another man. "I will live with regret for the rest of my life," Susan said tearfully while crying. However, she still chose to kill her baby. I couldn't help but think of Tony's daughter's fate in the novel. The detective told Tony that she was in immense pain when she died, with a broken arm and was strangled to death alive.

"He will never find out," he comforted the woman in his arms. Then, Susan turned around and was shocked to see Edward in the pouring rain. The composition here is very clever, as both Edward outside the window and Harden by Susan's side are captured at the same time, but their positions in her life are so distant and yet so close. The editing here is also very skilful; we don't actually see Edward react when he realizes he has been deceived, leaving us to imagine what happened between the three of them that day.

The film returns to the world of the novel, where Tony hesitates momentarily and lets go of the two people who killed his wife and daughter.

"I should have stopped him!" After one of the murderers is shot dead by the detective, Tony falls to his knees on the ground and screams in despair: "I should have prevented all of this!" The actor's emotional release makes sense here, echoing the predicament faced by Edward earlier, creating a touching emotional climax for the audience.

Tony and Edward: are they cowards? In a sense, yes. They are powerless to protect the ones they love and lack the courage to make decisions immediately. Just as Susan's mother predicted, Edward is romantic, fragile, sensitive, and unambitious. The qualities Susan currently loves will become the reason she despises him in the future. However, this does not mean they are not good people.

8. Ending

In a satirical twist, Susan and Edward first established their romantic relationship in a restaurant, and their real end also took place in a restaurant. Before going out, Susan wiped off heavy lipstick and removed her extravagant jewellery - if you look closely at her later close-up fingernails, the audience can even see that her nail colour is no longer black like before. At this point, Susan and her current husband have become strangers, and their marriage has reached a point of detachment. She hopes to restart her relationship with Edward, so she washes away her vanity and tries to return to the original Susan before meeting the man who truly understands her and trusts her.

However, things do not go as planned. As Edward once told her, you will never have a second chance. This is Edward's revenge. It is not easy for a person to find a soulmate in life. If you do find one, don't let go because such feelings are hard to come by again. It may sound clichéd and pessimistic, but in my opinion, this is the message Tom Ford wants to convey with this movie.

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