The plot of the film is a familiar one. John Halloran, an insurance investigator with no memory and a knack for solving crimes even when he can’t remember doing anything wrong, investigates two murders linked to “nightmare alley”, which may or may not exist.
In “Nightmare Alley,” the film noir clichés are not saved by director Guillermo del Toro’s magical vision.
REVIEW – Perhaps no filmmaker has done a greater job of presenting the aesthetically bizarre and intriguing atmosphere of a 1940s carnival than Guillermo del Toro. Still, there’s no better filmmaker to do it with a twisting and creative film noir plot, where the audience isn’t lulled to sleep by clichés from over 80 years ago.
Guillermo del Toro has always been a fan of outlandish characters and creatures. His Hellboy movie made supernatural animals into superheroes, while Touching Water, his most recent Oscar-winning feature, depicts a touching romance between a mute lady and an amphibious fish-man. Many filmmakers would jump at the chance to adapt a classic noir, but del Toro was drawn to the carnival plot. Nightmare Alley was the writer-next director’s project, which was a natural progression. The gloomy thriller about a carnival trickster is based on William Lindsay Gresham’s book, which was first adapted for the big screen in 1947, starring Tyron Power.
A medium who is convinced of his own falsehoods
Stan Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is a moustachioed, attractive stranger with a bleak background in Nightmare Alley (his father died under mysterious circumstances). He gets a work at a local carnival, swiftly demonstrates his bogus clairvoyant gift, becomes well-known, and finally believes in his own magical talents. The plot is a classic Icarus narrative or, as the case may be, a true ‘rollercoaster ride,’ in which the hero establishes a name for himself, but his success is short-lived, as is typical of film noir clichés… Del Toro’s adaptation is significantly more violent and aggressive than the previous rendition of Edmund Goulding’s book, digging further into the gloomy atmosphere of Gresham’s work, since he is no longer directing pursuant to the restrictions enforced by the 1940s. So, what is it about his film that makes it so boring and avant-garde?
Monsters and charlatans
Because del Toro is enthusiastic about this aspect of the film, the opening scene, set in a traveling carnival run by the malevolent Clem Hoately (Willem Dafoe), is the strongest. Stan watches in wonder as Clem introduces the carnival’s “monster,” a “performance” that stuns bystanders by chewing off the heads of chickens, in an early scene. It’s a career that’s only available to alcoholics and drug addicts, whom Clem dupes into performing such shady labor. Being a monster, Stan believes, is a destiny worse than death, and del Toro brilliantly shocks us with this sequence. Simultaneously, we feel pity for the creature, as well as regret over his destiny, which finally produces the Nightmare Alley ambiance.
Pete Krumbein (David Strathairn), a former mentalist whose drunkenness has decreased his capacity to utilize his “psychic talents” (clearly, via deceit) to harvest knowledge from the audience and deliver it to them, is one of the film’s greatest characters. His psychic performance is being maintained by his wife Zeena (Toni Collette). Still, she recognizes that her golden days are over, as does Clem, who regretfully informs Stan about the dubious methods he used to recruit new monsters to the traveling carnival. The intriguing world of carnival life in the 1940s provides a plethora of depictive possibilities, which might have been entertaining if del Toro had concentrated on it and crafted a more engaging plot to go along with it. Nightmare Alley, on the other hand, subsequently focused only on Stan’s wants, selfishness, and classic film noir background.
Del Toro’s style of film noir is not his cup of tea.
Stan picks up psychic powers from Zeena and Pete and sets off on the road with carnival companion Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara). Stan can predict people’s identities, fortunes, and innermost wishes blindfolded, and the two become a tremendously popular duo act in Buffalo, New York. Del Toro, unsurprisingly, pays close attention to the finer points of their stagecraft, with extended scenes demonstrating Molly and Stan’s intricate dialogue system, the personal details Stan picks up to guess the audience’s secrets, and the set design they use to distract the audience from their ruse. After all, del Toro is a showman who, even in his darkest works, provides dramatic set pieces.
It’s self-evident that film noir isn’t the director’s cup of tea. Even though Stan’s whole career is predicated on his purported connection with the spirit world, Nightmare Alley is the first of his big films to be devoid of supernatural aspects. Perhaps this is why the tale seems clunky and draggy at times; del Toro’s enthusiasm for the rogue psychic storyline is more restricted than his enthusiasm for the true fantasy, horror, and bizarre components.
Cooper somehow fails to communicate the core and progressively evident wickedness of Stan’s character; Mara is not particularly believable as the first utterly in love, then increasingly disillusioned showgirl, despite the fact that none of the performers are bad. Cate Blanchett plays Lilith Ritter, a femme fatale psychiatrist who introduces Stan to the upper crust midway through the film. Despite her charisma in the part, she falls short of adding much depth to the famous film noir figure.
Originality is lacking.
Nightmare Alley is a visually unique, sometimes disturbing picture that would be a good match for del Toro’s resume, but it would have required to keep the viewer’s attention with real tension to be a true twisting thriller. Pete urges Stan at the start of the movie not to undertake a “ghost show,” which refers to someone pretending as a genuine psychic who can connect with the dead in carnivalesque terms. Of fact, Stan does just that, but the film takes more than an hour to show the potentially fatal repercussions. Nightmare Alley nags us about where the story is attempting to go, and then moves too slowly to get there. Stan’s fantasy in his own power is obviously leading to his demise, and Lilith is visibly untrustworthy, but by the time these’shocking’ disclosures are delivered, we’ve fallen asleep due to the plot’s snail’s pace.
-BadSector-
REVIEW – Perhaps no filmmaker has done a greater job of presenting the aesthetically bizarre and intriguing atmosphere of a 1940s carnival than Guillermo del Toro. Still, there’s no better filmmaker to do it with a twisting and creative film noir plot, where the audience isn’t lulled to sleep by clichés from over 80 years ago. Guillermo del Toro has always been a fan of outlandish characters and creatures. His Hellboy movie transformed supernatural monsters into superheroes, while Touching Water, his most recent Oscar-winning feature, crafts a touching romance between a mute lady and an…
Del Toro’s Magical Vision Isn’t Enough to Save Nightmare Alley Clichés of the Dark
Del Toro’s Magical Vision Isn’t Enough to Save Nightmare Alley Clichés of the Dark
2022-01-31
Gergely Herpai (BadSector)
Nightmare Alley is a visually unique, sometimes disturbing picture that would be a good match for del Toro’s resume, but it would have required to keep the viewer’s attention with real tension to be a true twisting thriller.
6.4 Direction
6.5 for acting
6.2 for the story
8.2 for visuals and music
6.8 Ambiance
6.8
FAIR
Nightmare Alley is a visually unique, sometimes disturbing picture that would be a good match for del Toro’s resume, but it would have required to keep the viewer’s attention with real tension to be a true twisting thriller.
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