Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		4.0

Nocturnal Animals Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman February 26, 2017

Tom Ford impressed in his debut picture A Single Man and returns to the screen more than half-a-decade later with his second feature, Nocturnal Animals. Beautiful but gritty, a bit grim and grisly, narratively gripping, and fully compelling, the film feels both externally disparate yet internally connected as it weaves together a single story told in two very different ways. A real-world tale of love lost and lost souls and a story that violently captures the raw emotions that result, the film is a two-in-one that looks and feels different between its worlds but works in harmony to tell a single, cohesive story built on human emotion personified in the real world and embodied in fiction. It's difficult to capture its intensity, dichotomy, and cohesion in a small written space, but Ford works movie magic and all but crafts a contemporary classic in his second feature.

A cutting-edge art gallery owner named Susan (Amy Adams) has moved on with her life after breaking off her marriage to an aspiring writer named Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal). In the time since their separation, Susan has remarried but suspects that her husband isn't faithful. Edward has penned a novel set to be published in the coming months, and he's dedicated it to his ex-wife. As she reads a pre-release manuscript, she discovers the story of Tony (also Gyllenhaal) and a West Texas ordeal that destroys his life and not-so-subtly points the finger back to Susan.

To label the film as "crafty" or "clever" would be to undersell it. It's certainly unique in tone and construction, deliberate in pacing, and fairly different from anything else on the movie marketplace. Ford takes a complex story and an equally complex idea and manages to present them in a cohesive fashion without dumbing anything down but rather playing up the visual juxtapositions and core themes that are at once dueling and unified. The film is, essentially, made of two distinct pieces, but those pieces form an aggregate narrative with many moving parts. It may take the first half to get the film's feel, but once everything is established and the pieces move and come into focus, the film's brilliance becomes clear. A tale of loss told and shown in two very distinct ways that mix reality and perception and dig deep into the dueling psyches of both individuals and how they respond to it, Nocturnal Animals challenges characters and the audience alike in the search for answers, guidance through the grieving process, and responses as they're shaped and explored in the colder real world and the more gritty and visceral furtherest reaches of the mind.

Ford's ability to finely twist and tune the film, using striking reflective juxtaposition and finely weaving thought-provoking substance both on the surface and in the finely developed layers underneath all contribute to making the film a success, but so too do the film's performances. Jake Gyllenhaal pulls flawless double duty as both a wounded writer in the real world and a wounded protagonist in the fictional world the writer has written. Exploring both with subtly developed nuance and hammer-strike strokes, the actor finds the center for both of his characters with telling composure in the real world and a gritty, increasingly hard-edged victim in the fictional world. It's interesting to watch the characters progress and to witness the parallel runnings and eventual intersection of them as both stories develop. Amy Adams seems, on paper, to have the least demanding role in the film, but hers is in many ways the most challenging when it's all said and done, asking her to react to the story as it presents her altered but very much personal reflection in the work. Her progress through the movie is, as with every other component, constructed of perfectly executed nuance that allows the story to dive deeply into her psyche. The ever-impressive Michael Shannon shines as the West Texas lawman who is, essentially, the audience's eyes and voice, the outsider who demonstrates the power necessary to right a wrong but also reflect the fragility of life.

But the film's more stylistic contrasts are what immediately help to make it or break it. Part avant-garde cutting-edge, silky-smooth, clean and contemporary character film and part rustic, sizzling, gritty, hard-edged picture in the tradition of No Country for Old Men, the movie's dueling but intersecting stories couldn't be more structurally different. But it's in how they still tonally and emotionally parallel one another, in their own ways, that gives the movie character. It would work remarkably well if it was only Tony's story from start to finish. It's slow-burn and superbly crafted, perfectly textured, beautifully shot, and never feels less than richly realized in terms of both character development and narrative drive. The film's other half presents such a different world -- more David Lynch than Joel and Ethan Coen -- that the unique opening credits in some ways become the film's identity. It's difficult to say what, exactly, Ford is looking to accomplish with the open beyond establishing the duality of Susan's world that will become paralleled in the book, but it's a sequence that certainly sells the movie's initial impression in a way that seems to eventually compliment the story but might turn away those not willing to move beyond and give it the chance it most certainly deserves.

Nocturnal Animals Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Nocturnal Animals was shot on film, making it practically "old school" in the digital age. The image certainly shows the film format's strengths. It's a texturally rich film, grainy but finely complimentary to the movie's tone. Textural bounties are abundant. Faces are impressively complex, whether smooth and makeup-enhanced faces or gritty, sweaty, sun-baked West Texas skins, the image captures significant nuanced detailing in every close-up. Environments and clothing are richly defined, too, more so in the sun-soaked West Texas locales and less so in the smooth and contemporary real world, but there's no shortage of tangible, tactile clothing textures and environmental supports, both natural and manmade, both clean and rugged. Colors are fantastic. Adams' blue eyes and red hair and lipstick stand apart from otherwise cold and clean modern lines while the novel's Texas setting is awash in harsh, but even, contrast with an accentuating warmth and edge. Black levels are gorgeously deep. Nighttime blacks are hugely impressive, showing tremendous depth and detail without pushing to crush or grayscale. Skin tones are accurate to the environment and lighting. The print is meticulous and there are no immediately obvious compression issues of note. This is a home run from Universal and it's a shame the studio didn't also release it on UHD. It more than likely would have shined.

Nocturnal Animals Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Nocturnal Animals arrives on Blu-ray with a quality DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The movie isn't one to oversaturate the stage with sound. It's deliberate and detailed, pronouncing when necessary but beautifully reserved when opportune. Music is well spaced, situated predominantly across the front and yielding high-end instrumental clarity from the bottom end to the top. Atmospherics bring the movie to life, whether insect chatter in Texas or street din in the city: both are nicely enveloping and engaging. Slightly more aggressive effects, such as interstate travel heard inside a car or a few crashes and screams, enjoy authentic detail while a few gunshots in the third act are crisp and realistically weighty. Dialogue drives much of the film and is presented with consistently natural front-center positioning, clarity, and prioritization.

Nocturnal Animals Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Beyond the included DVD and UV/iTunes digital copy code, only one disc-based extra, The Making of 'Nocturnal Animals' is included, though it does break down into three separate pieces:

• Building the Story (1080p, 4:11): A look at the dueling stories, characters and performances, the connections between the stories, narrative structure, and themes.
• The Look of Nocturnal Animals (1080p, 3:48): A technically oriented piece that explores the film's cinematography, the use of color and contrast as narrative devices, shooting on film, costumes, and Tom Ford's vision and involvement.
• The Filmmaker's Eye: Tom Ford (1080p, 3:31): A closer look at Tom Ford's vision for and contributions to the film.

Nocturnal Animals Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Nocturnal Animals is an exquisite film, one defined by beautifully interwoven subtleties, broader-stroke narrative arcs, and complex characters. Beyond a few oddities it's all very accessible, if not very dark. It's often gritty and uncomfortable, a love letter to love lost, essentially, and one of the most engaging, engrossing, different, and well-made movies of 2016. Universal's Blu-ray boasts gorgeous 1080p picture, high-end 5.1 lossless audio, and a few supplements. Highly recommended, though the film is certainly not for all tastes.