Review by Sarah Baker
Mahatma Ghandi once said, “an eye for an eye will only make the world blind.”
Author Austin Wright’s tale of revenge, however, opens eyes to many equivocal perspectives and new lenses through a cautionary tale of love, heart- break, murder and vengeance.
Tom Ford has remunerated us with another brilliantly bloodcurdling film, an adaptation of Wright’s 334-page book, “Tony and Susan.”
The film starts with the story of Susan Murrow (Amy Adams), a middle-aged visual artist in an oblivious state of introspective depression.
She receives a package in the mail from her estranged ex-husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal); a manuscript of a novel, “Nocturnal Animals.” It’s dedicated to Susan, which she is shocked by, though it seems there’s a cryptic meaning hiding behind his presumably affectionate action.
As Susan reads, another story unfolds.
The story of Tony Hastings (Jake Gyllenhaal), and his wife and daughter, Laura (Isla Fisher) and India (Ellie Bamber) respectively.
They’re a tight-knit family packing up for new beginnings in Marfa, Texas, a road trip that pulls us in with the allure of domestic family life. However, it’s not long before tragedy strikes the Hastings family. What starts out as rather conventional — albeit frightening — road rage quickly escalates into Tony’s worst nightmare; losing his wife and child.
As Susan puts down the book, her own story takes the front seat.
It’s an ingenious give-and-take between the two plots, and the further we delve, the more we begin to understand that Susan is her own antagonist. In both stories.
Edward’s manuscript was not a gift, it was his last jab, his final concession.
His novel was a clever and twisted parallel to their real-life relationship and the vomitous manner in which his family had been ripped away from him.
Ford rocked the box office with another dauntless film, bringing in $30.7 million.
While certain moments in Present Susan’s life seemed a little cardboard and forced, Tony and Edward pull the cinematic translation far above the 73 percent from Rotten Tomatoes and certainly the 67 percent from Metacritic. Every actor exhibited stellar performances and the screenwriting was phenomenal.
There’s no doubt audiences everywhere are eagerly anticipating Ford’s next masterpiece.