@yuna_yAmy Adams spends most of Nocturnal Animals looking wrecked in very expensive clothing while Jake Gyllenhaal gets the actual emotional workout. That imbalance is kind of the point, and also kind of the problem. Tom Ford took heartbreak and ran it through a high-fashion filter, so regret ends up gorgeous and everything is soaked in blood, feeling, and beauty. The film isn't a thriller, it's a revenge narrative, and the violence is mostly emotional. Gyllenhaal's work here is quietly devastating. Grief, rage, and stillness all at once, and those eyes are doing something illegal. He doesn't perform so much as bleed on camera and make it look easy. A woman receives a novel from her ex. In the book, a man's life is destroyed in the Texas desert. The book is also about her, and she already knew that going in. The first act promises one thing and the finish never quite delivers the same punch. I kept waiting for the ending to land harder, and the pacing never got there. 3.5/5

@yuna_yAmy Adams spends most of Nocturnal Animals looking wrecked in very expensive clothing while Jake Gyllenhaal gets the actual emotional workout. That imbalance is kind of the point, and also kind of the problem. Tom Ford took heartbreak and ran it through a high-fashion filter, so regret ends up gorgeous and everything is soaked in blood, feeling, and beauty. The film isn't a thriller, it's a revenge narrative, and the violence is mostly emotional. Gyllenhaal's work here is quietly devastating. Grief, rage, and stillness all at once, and those eyes are doing something illegal. He doesn't perform so much as bleed on camera and make it look easy. A woman receives a novel from her ex. In the book, a man's life is destroyed in the Texas desert. The book is also about her, and she already knew that going in. The first act promises one thing and the finish never quite delivers the same punch. I kept waiting for the ending to land harder, and the pacing never got there. 3.5/5