After reading the introduction again, I realized that the film is actually about a woman named Susan who suddenly receives a book called "Nocturnal Animals". The book describes the tragedy that happened when a family of three went on vacation and encountered a group of thugs on the road at night. The author of the book was her ex-husband Edward, whom she had not been in touch with for nearly 20 years, and Edward claimed to have been inspired by her and dedicated it to her. So the question is, did something happen to Susan and Edward, why did they get divorced and didn't see each other for 20 years? Why did the ex-husband send Susan a book he wrote after so long? What is this book about? Why is the book called Nocturnal Animals?
Movies with suspense always inspire the desire to watch. And after watching the whole film, I found out that the answer to the suspense is second, and the really interesting part is to peep into the hearts of Susan and Edward.
Susan and Edward were never the same people. Susan is essentially like her mother, a realistic, conservative, discriminatory, materialistic person of all kinds. When people were young, they always thought that they were superior to their parents. Therefore, Edward's literary and artistic temperament deeply attracted Susan, as if falling in love with him was proof that she was different from her mother and a representative of her rebellious spirit. Yet Edward's sensitivity and compassion for his insight into human nature were always beyond the comprehension of people like Susan and her mother, who called it weak. As her mother said, the place you love him most now will become the place you hate the most in the future. This sentence really came true. When Edward failed to succeed as a writer, when she gradually lost her confidence in Edward and her tolerance for poor life, she fell into the arms of a more handsome and ambitious man and brutally killed Edward's child in her belly.
Therefore, when Susan, who felt guilty, read the stories in the book, she always thought that Edward was avenging her. When she saw the thugs hijack the protagonist's wife and daughter's car, she immediately called her daughter to confirm whether she was safe or not; when she saw the body of her wife, what she saw was her own appearance; when she saw the word "revenge" hanging in the office The image of the thug flashed before her, scaring her to break her phone. But she will never understand that she is not the wife in the book, but the violent thug in the book, tearing and destroying everything Edward loves with her own hands.
She also didn't understand that the protagonist's death with the mob in the end meant that there was nothing more grief than death, but instead she understood Edward's grief as a manifestation of still loving her deeply. And thinking of the past, compared to the cold marriage relationship now, I feel as if I fell in love with Edward again, and I feel that it is time to ask for his forgiveness. So dress up and take off the ring to meet Edward. But what was waiting was just an empty house.
remove the ring
Isn't this a great irony? In Edward's world, Susan's injury to him is like the irreversible pain in the movie "irreversible", frozen in place forever. In Susan's eyes, the book was superficially misinterpreted as an opportunity for revenge or even forgiveness. Like the indifference of the thugs in the book about their crimes, as if no big deal happened.
Perhaps this is the greatest sadness.
Postscript:
Apart from the plot, I have to say that the movies made by TF are different, they are really beautiful. I heard that TF likes naked people, so the naked bodies in the movie are as beautiful as sculptures in Italian museums. Not to mention the clothing and makeup of the characters, the installation art of the space, etc., these really add a lot to this suspenseful film.
human body like sculpture
Finally, I found an interesting interview with TF:
In an interview with "GQ" magazine in 2004, Tom Ford said that "men should experience the feeling of being 'entered'", 12 years later, Tom, who is 55 years old, • Ford once again gave an interview to "GQ" when asked if he still stick to their original remarks he made this explanation: "I think it helps to make men better understand women."
"Once In doing so, you put yourself in a weak position, a passive position." He continued, "It's an intrusion into the body, even if it's a voluntary one, in a way. Behaviour, it’s also very private.”
“And I think the psychology of that experience makes you understand and appreciate this thing throughout a woman’s life, because it’s not just about sex, it’s not just about how the world works. It's a set-up -- a gender that needs to take it all, and it's also a violation."
"I don't think most men understand that," he added.
View more about Nocturnal Animals reviews
