Leigh Paatsch awards romantic thriller Nocturnal Animals four out of five stars

Director: Tom Ford (A Single Man)

Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Aaron Taylor-Johnson.

Rating: 4 / 5

You can’t judge a book by her lover

What if the one that got away was the one you could have had all along?

Don’t answer that. Let Nocturnal Animals take the question.

The response, when it comes, is blunt, bruising, unforgettable, and above all else, truthful.

However, the paths followed to reach this final moment of reckoning are just as important to the success of Nocturnal Animals as the destination itself.

Based on the 1993 novel Tony and Susan by the late American author Austin Wright, Nocturnal Animals weaves its way in and out of (or is that over and under?) multiple, intricately connected plots.

The first tale is definitely the most accessible, but hardly the most representative of Nocturnal Animals’ devious intentions.

Amy Adams plays Susan, a jaded LA artist with a controversial new exhibition that has just opened, and a mysterious parcel that has just arrived in the mail. It is an advance copy of a novel penned by her ex-husband Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal).

At this point, the film splits off on two further storytelling planes. One covers off on the past courtship, marriage and divorce of Susan and Edward.

The other depicts the contents of Edward’s novel, elements of which have clearly been drawn from his time with Susan.

It is in bringing Edward’s book to life that Nocturnal Animals snaps out of the stylish smoulder of its restrained opening act, and rapidly catches alight.

Gyllenhaal is again to the fore in these gripping sequences, playing Tony, the chief protagonist in the book.

Tony has recently lost his wife (Isla Fisher) and daughter (Ellie Bamber) in terrifying circumstances during a late-night carjacking on a lonely road in West Texas (yes, the same part of the world currently thrilling and chilling audiences in Hell Or High Water).

Bobby Andes (a superb Michael Shannon), the veteran police detective handling Tony’s case, has already run out of time getting square with the injustices of his own life. Evening up the score for Tony becomes a point of pride that could end a checkered career on the right note.

If the plotting of Nocturnal Animals reads as unnecessarily tangential — messy, even — there is no need to worry.

Performances across the board are completely attuned to the unusual structure of the screenplay, and convey both a despair and hope that only intensifies as the ending comes into view.

Originally published as A romantic thriller that catches fire