Nightmare Alley (2021) Dir: Guillermo del Toro
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I remember when this Guillermo del Toro film initially came out, all I heard were negative things. Since then though, I've heard a few more positive than not. It was with this in mind, that I decided to spend my evening watching the film, so as to form my own opinion on the thriller.
Interesting though the story may have been, it took an age to unfold. The first hour crawled by with very little to show for it. It was a genuine struggle to get through, such was the slow pacing. The story picked up from then on, at least to some extent. The characters grew a lot more interesting to me, in any case.
The last half an hour or so was finally the film I'd been hoping for all along. It was thrilling, exciting and capitalised on what had been a severely longwinded setup. I just wish the rest of the film had kept me as invested. I also wish the film had been at least half an hour shorter.
I was a little disappointed by the visuals of the film. It did not feel at all like the del Toro films of years gone by. The only similarities being in some of the darker shots towards the end of the film. Aside from that, it felt like any other film, which was a let down.
I felt like I should have enjoyed Bradley Cooper's performance a lot more than I did. But, alas, I did not. I was at first bored, and then increasingly irritated by him. I wanted more from him, instead of a mediocre display that felt like a parody of film noir protagonists of the past.
Rooney Mara provided an endearing and likable character at least, among an array of dull or villainous characters. I liked her performance, but it didn't exactly blow me away by any means. It was adequate, but most definitely could have been better.
Cate Blanchett was the one who absolutely blew me away. She was charismatic, mysterious and devilish. She was the one person I was consistently invested in seeing when she appeared. She lifted her scenes in intrigue and quality, in a way that her co-stars failed to do.
Richard Jenkins had a few very strong scenes towards the end of his time on screen, but I found myself a little bored of him at first, for a while at least. His character's writing was emblematic of the film as a whole; full of potential and low in delivery.
Aside from Blanchett, I would say Toni Collette and Willem Dafoe were the standout performers for me, particularly Dafoe, who, to nobody's surprise, was stellar. Beyond those two, the other standouts were Ron Perlman, David Strathairn, Jim Beaver, Mary Steenburgen, Holt McCallany and David Hewlett.
Overall, I feel that this was a film that massively missed out on its potential. I think it had a lot going for it - a truly great director and cast, for example - but a lumbering plot, poor pacing and a severely dull mise-en-scène left me feeling immensely unfulfilled by this modern film noir. I hate to say it, but this was a bore.
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