Nightmare Alley

They should've stuck with the leaner, smarter ending in the novel, because boy was I sick of Bradley Cooper's overacting by then. Ironically, he's playing a character who's repeatedly told not to buy into his own hype, when he needs that lesson more than Stanton Carlisle ever did.

Everyone else is competent at least. I thought at first that Rooney Mara was miscast, but she's playing a very different Molly Cahill from the novel, and does so effectively. Most of the cast are too old for their roles, but I can overlook that. It necessarily deviates from the novel for length, complexity and the practicalities of filmmaking, but also some arbitrary changes that are never improvements.

What's missing is the grandeur and spectacle that keep even del Toro's lesser films from being dull. There are good performances, good visuals, but nothing achieves greatness.

Bradley Cooper stars in Guillermo del Toro's remake of this story about an impoverished drifter who happens upon a carnival geek show. From there, he learns various magic tricks and creates an act of illusion that he takes to the city. Thereafter, he encounters more than he anticipated. Rooney Mara is his love interest and fellow circus performer, Willem Dafoe is lively and animated as the amoral carnival owner and Cate Blanchett is a mysterious psychiatrist with whom Cooper's protagonist crosses paths. Richard Jenkins is excellent as a rich tycoon with an immoral past.

Cooper gives a multi-dimensional performance that helps carry the film and he gets plenty of help; this film noir boasts a formidable acting lineup, stunning period detail and is handsomely shot, however its overall impact is greatly dulled by a running time that is way too long. Although it starts strong with an ominous first chapter and has quite a hauntingly bleak conclusion, somewhere in between the narrative loses its bite and thus ends it potential for greatness.

In addition to being overlong, Del Toro's work feels claustrophobic, a problem that his earlier films have been able to overcome more effectively. Overall, a film that could have been a masterpiece if it had spent more time in the cutting room. Some gruesomely violent scenes should be forewarned about. That being said, the film's final frame still lingers on. Recommended to viewers with patience and a strong stomach.

Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper); is a man trying to get by in late 1930s America in the new film "Nightmare Alley". Our first introduction to Stanton is less than flattering and he soon finds himself employed at a Carnival after coming upon it by chance.

The eager Stanton is given advice and tools of the trade by his boss Clem (Willem Dafoe) as well as the mystic Zeena (Toni Collette) and Stanton eagerly wants to get ahead. While striking a friendship with fellow employee Molly (Rooney Mara); Stanton learns that Zeena's older and alcoholic husband has a skill from a former act where he learns to read people and use verbal cues to appear to have the power of clairvoyance.

Eventually, Stanton seeks bigger opportunities and leaves with Molly for the city where they in time develop a successful act that offers them two shows a night at a fancy hotel and some of the finer things in life.

Unwilling to be content with what he has; Stanton becomes involved with a Psychologist named Lilith (Cate Blanchett) and uses her knowledge to set up higher-profile marks who will pay well for his supposed abilities and in doing so; sets a dangerous chain of events into motion.

The film is based on the 1946 book of the same name and an earlier 1947 film, and while it does an amazing job with the visuals and moody atmosphere of the era; it is a very long and slowly-paced film. The movie is over 2.5 hours long and comes across as overly long and self-indulgent as Director Guillermo del Toro could easily have shaved 30-45 minutes from the film and told the story without losing much.

The cast and performances are very good but a slow-paced and dour film is not an ideal way to spend 2.5 hours at the movies no matter how much it has going for it. The movie does have some good points but I think it will do much better on streaming and home video where audiences can pause and take a break.

If you are a fan of the Noir style of old; then this may be just what you are looking for, but I think it should have been so much more.

3.5 stars out of 5.

From the filmmaker who's always looked for beauty in the grotesque and whose fascination with horror, fantasy, fairy tales & monsters knows no bounds, Nightmare Alley marks quite a departure from his earlier works. While the story features a dark premise and the imagery is infused with gothic flavours, it plays out like a straightforward neo-noir psychological thriller and is devoid of the supernatural.

Co-written & directed by Guillermo del Toro (Pacific Rim & The Shape of Water), the first act does create an intrigue & mystery about our protagonist and what he may be up to but once the story departs from the carnival setting, the interest does start to fizzle out as it becomes evident where it's headed & how it's going to play out. It isn't necessarily a complaint but for a director of del Toro's calibre, more was expected here.

On the technical front, the film scores high marks with its sumptuous production design that brings its period setting to life in splendid detail. Deft camerawork & amber lighting also add to its noirish tone and the decadent score enriches it some more. Performances are where it delivers the most valuable goods. Bradley Cooper is committed throughout, plus his act only gets better as plot progresses and he is strongly supported by the rest.

Overall, Nightmare Alley is a perfectly fine example of its genre and will keep most viewers invested in its proceedings with its rich production value & impressive acting. However, the characters still remain distant for some reason and the story as a whole feels more or less underwhelming in the end. To sum it up, Guillermo del Toro's latest offering isn't without its charms and has a few neat tricks up its sleeve but nothing about it is original or refreshing.

I liked Nightmare Alley at first. It's visually gorgeous and pulls you in with its ambience and bits of mystery. But at a certain point, where what I'd call the "second act" begins, I looked to see how much was left of the movie, thinking it was about the time in a noir when things really get going like a runaway freight train, and realized it was only half over!

I felt pretty restless at that point, in spite of Cate Blanchett's pitch-perfect performance. It wasn't so much that less time should have been used up in the first act as that every single thing should have been shorter. This should have had the brisk quality of classic noir, instead of the slow boil noir here.

The movie does finally go into runaway freight train mode almost two hours in, and that last part is intense and gripping and everything you'd want it to be, but really this whole movie should have been 90-100 minutes and a good finale doesn't erase the boredom I'd felt for most of the previous hour.

Del Toro's a terrific director, the movie looks amazing, and Blanchett is phenomenal, so I won't say skip it. I will say, lower your expectations and don't count on something worthy of the best picture Oscar nomination this got.