Nocturnal Animals Analysis

Wow. This movie was thought provoking.

Spoiler Warning.

The main drive in the movie is revenge. It's also a different take on abortion that I have never heard of or considered morally. Amy Adams is manipulated by her mom, to believe that her husband Jake Gyllenhaal is not successful, has no drive or ambition, is too weak to provide for her. This leads her to Armie Hammer, which then manipulated her into having an abortion, since she's rather submissive and actually projecting her weakness onto other people. She goes through with the abortion and Jake is outside the clinic, witnessing the emotional moment between the new couple, after the fact.

This is an interesting appeal to pro life, which I happen to agree with. If you decide to have a baby, and it's a mutual decision between the man and the woman, then it should be mandatory, conditionally only if it doesn't affect her health in a way. Breaking up with someone right before having the baby, then being manipulated into having an abortion, just seems wrong in so many ways. It's strangely interesting to me, that adding this factor of manipulation and infidelity, totally changes the morality of it all in my mind.

Now I agree that women should have autonomy over their bodies, but never had I considered so many nuanced positions like this, and it's difficult to determine what is right and what is wrong, impossible when regarding legal considerations.

The analogy in the movie, is that Aaron Taylor Johnson and his band of misfits forced Jake and his fictional family off the road. ( A story portrayed in the mind of Amy, which was a book written by Jake). They then abduct his daughter and wife, raped and murdered them. He did nothing to stop it, so this was an analogy of the man stealing his wife, making her have an abortion, and his weakness, leading him to inaction.

The second interesting thing about this movie, is that it's about what drives people. Amy Adams never thought he could be a great writer, didn't believe in him. Despite the fact that Jake believed in her, being one of the many reasons she loved him, also sensitivity, creativity, passion, and love.

Her new Husband Armie, was very detached, someone to which Amy's mother promoted. An uncaring, devout to individual success and ambition. Someone who's financial gain was of the utmost importance, and love and family secondary. This was not as important to Jake, as being empathetic, sensitive, and creative.

The new relationship was detached after a period of time, completely void of care and love.

There's many people that believe that money is a hindrance to the creative process, and that many of the worlds greatest discoveries and inventions, have been made by individuals that aren't driven by profit. This is especially true when you look at the Wozniak / Jobs debate, or even Linus Torvalds, or Tesla, or even Einstein. Their work was never about materialism, but about their passion and their drive.

It was a very thought provoking movie. Everyone should go see it. To fully grasp all the nuance this movie has to offer, you really have to watch it a second time, especially when viewing it through this lens. There's not one second wasted that isn't an analogy or a symbol for something profound.

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This only serves to compound the profound nature of the film. In memory, it is the most referential, symbolic movie I've ever seen.

Most movies I've seen in this type of genre are too ambiguous, or too stylistic without substance. Every scene is just ambiguous enough to incur reflection and concentration on everything that has happened preceding it, yet have a finite and explicit point. It's quite remarkable.