Nightmare Alley: Movie Review

Cast: Bradley Cooper, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, Rooney Mara, David Strathairn, Cate Blanchett

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Spanish director and master of the whimsical and unsettlingly macabre Guillermo del Toro heads to the carnival for this Gothic slice of neo noir.

Essentially a parable about going too far and overachieving your dreams above your own station, Bradley Cooper delivers a restrained near-career best as Stanton Carlisle, who takes a job working as a carny.

Enthralled by the life of a clairvoyant act (Collette and Strathairn, both utterly compelling and human), Carlisle begins to learn the tricks of the trade while trying to woo fellow performer Molly (Mara), promising her a new life and riches if they head off together.

But when Carlisle starts to enjoy the trappings of success and leaves the carnival to reinvent himself as the Great Stanton, he ends up falling under the spell of psychologist Dr Lilith Ritter (Blanchett, a cool and icy femme fatale presence). Realising he can use her inside knowledge as a tool to manipulate marks, the pair form an uneasy alliance - but Carlisle starts to get greedy...

There's much to admire in Nightmare Alley, a film that thrives on atmosphere and that builds to a climax that if you're paying attention you can see coming a mile off.

The story of a rise and downfall is nothing new, but what del Toro does is to build a production that proves immersive and unsettling as the cat and mouse games begin to take hold.

With some sumptuous production work, del Toro brings the carnival world vividly to life, but cleverly uses it more as a backdrop, rather than as a major player in the story. The pulpy levels are dialled up during the second half of the film as the elements of The Prestige and every other con film come to the fore.

But del Toro is in no rush to race to his conclusion, leaving the film more as something to brood in the background and brew to perfection. 

However, it doesn't quite all gel.

Willem Dafoe's carny boss practically disappears in the second half having been so instrumental to proceedings, and Mara's Molly fades into the background as the story of Stanton's own impending downfall builds to a crescendo. (The two part structure feels very pronounced and disruptive to a flow-through.)

Blanchett and Cooper make for a vital pair, and the contrast between the dark setting of the carnival and the opulent playground where the pair spar is evocative and helps to fuel the impending sense of tragedy.

And very occasionally, it does feel like Nightmare Alley is holding you at arms' length, afraid to clasp you to its troubled bosom as you sit admiring the prestige nature of the film itself. The emotional beats feel off and too subdued to fully explode.

Del Toro doesn't exactly subvert noir trappings with Nightmare Alley, but his restraint in going overboard and avoiding some of the more gruesome elements that could have titillated his sensibilities proves to be a welcome spin on the film. 

It may be haunting and won't be for everyone, but this evocative slice of noir is more than just a one trick pony - whether you know or can guess its denouement or otherwise.