Review: Nightmare Alley

In the late 1930s, a drifter (played by Bradley Cooper) gets a gig as a labourer at a circus working for carny Willem Dafoe. He makes fast friends with resident clairvoyant act Toni Collette and her alcoholic husband David Strathairn, and is soon promoted to an assistant for them. Strathairn informs Cooper of a particular mentalist act he has devised employing certain verbal clues, and the ambitious Cooper sees dollar signs in the trickery of the act. He also strikes up a romance with Rooney Mara, who has an ‘electrical girl’ act in the circus. Eventually they leave the circus together and strike out on their own, with Cooper hoping to find fame and fortune with Strathairn’s notebook on cues for the mentalist act. Two years later they’re in New York and making a good living with the act. That is until vampy psychologist Cate Blanchett turns up to throw Cooper’s rhythm off with his act (which involves Cooper claiming to contact dead people). He meets up with her afterwards and Cooper makes Blanchett a proposition: If she gives him insider information on some of her more wealthy patients, he’ll cut her in on the profits. However, when she warns him not to mess with unstable and unscrupulous millionaire (Richard Jenkins), Cooper is too busy thinking about the green. The cocky, ambitious Cooper may have underestimated his new accomplice, who even convinces him to take a seat in her swanky office couch to get analysed. Ron Perlman plays the circus strong man who gets jealously protective of Mara.

 

I’ve seen a lot of 40s and 50s noir, but I have to confess that 1947’s “Nightmare Alley” has never been on my radar. I’ve never seen it and only faintly recall hearing the title. So I went into this 2021 remake from stylish director Guillermo del Toro (“Pan’s Labyrinth”, “Hellboy”, “Crimson Peak”, “The Shape of Water”) and his co-writer Kim Morgan (mostly known as a film critic) fairly blind. Lovers of the original film or the novel it is based on may feel differently, but for the most part I really enjoyed this one. Yes, it’s too long (about 30 minutes longer than the 1947 film). Yes, the first half was much of much more appeal to me than the second, with an ending you can see coming from halfway in. And yes, the lead character played by Bradley Cooper is the film’s least interesting. However, with all of that being said, the film still worked for me if not perhaps as much as I was expecting. It’s a solid and interesting film with some good performances and a director who knows his way around visuals and atmosphere.

 

Although I prefer my noir in B&W, this film looks absolutely stunning thanks to del Toro and cinematographer Dan Laustsen (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”, “Crimson Peak”), whose roving camerawork is a definite highlight especially in the film’s first half. It’s still suitably dark-looking, with lots of stormy atmosphere conjured up by del Toro, too. Meanwhile, the funhouse is a wonderful creation of production design, weird as hell, and very del Toro meets Mario Bava (“Kill, Baby…Kill”, “Black Sunday”, “Black Sabbath”). There’s hints of Tod Browning’s classic and disturbing 1932 film “Freaks” early on as well. The second half is more traditional noir, whereas the first half has a real Gothic horror influence that I suppose was ever-so slightly more my cup of tea. The performances in the first half are excellent, particularly Rooney Mara (one of her best turns) but also Willem Dafoe and a perfectly cast Ron Perlman, the latter two having perfect ugly mugs for noir. I mean that in the most complimentary sense. We also get an interesting and very sad turn by David Strathairn and a surprising, cast-against-type Toni Collette making for what edges towards femme fatale territory. She’s a long way from Porpoise Spit here. I honestly think Dafoe, Mara, and Strathairn deserved Oscar nominations for their work here. del Toro seems much more at home in the first half with this atmospheric setting and eccentric array of colourful carnival characters.

 

In the second half of the film we have a perfectly cast Cate Blanchett as a legit femme fatale, and she’s definitely the highlight of the second half. A blend of Lauren Bacall and Veronica Lake, she’s perfect for noir albeit del Toro’s rather uniquely stylised interpretation of film noir. Some have felt that Bradley Cooper is too old and miscast in the lead here. I don’t see that as the issue. It’s just that his character and performance are the least interesting in the film. It’s not a flaw so big that it derails the film to the point of ruining it, but it’s still not ideal for the film’s protagonist to be the weak link to some extent. This, more than anything else is what stops this from being one of del Toro’s best films. I can forgive the lumpy mixture, I can forgive the rather predictable trajectory of the story. However, the leading character really ought to be a compelling centre to the film, so it does pull this one back from being even better than it is.

 

The leading man is less interesting than anything else in the film. The two halves don’t quite co-exist cohesively. Yet, this very atmospheric slice of noir is still worth watching for its visuals and the supporting cast. It’s just not as strong as it could’ve (and perhaps should’ve) been. Absolutely stunning to look at however, and never boring.  

 

Rating: B-