The Reel Review
Fashion designer/director Tom Ford turns his creative eye to the thin boundaries between love, hate and revenge in this quirky crime thriller tucked inside a personal saga of betrayal.
Amy Adams is a successful but unhappy art gallery owner who receives a book manuscript from first husband Jake Gyllenhaal, 20 years after she dumped him and her dreams of being an artist to pursue a financially safer life. She quickly realizes that the book’s unsettling, pulse-pounding roadside horror is a symbol of his feelings of abandonment by her.
While the story is riveting and all the performances are really good (particularly Michael Shannon as the cop), Ford over-accessorizes his film with an inappropriate score pulled straight from Basic Instinct (where it worked) and self-indulgent style details that look like tacky appliqués plastered onto a nice dress. Less is more! Still, the movie is thought-provoking and delivers a powerful message about the importance of being true to oneself. And then there is that ending. Wow.
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