A week after Spielberg did the impossible and made a fantastic remake of a classic film as good as what came before, fellow Oscar winner Guillermo Del Toro does the same with Nightmare Alley. However, in his case, the classic original is lesser-known. The film is a neo-noir psychological thriller that is his long-awaited follow-up to his best picture winner, The Shape of Water, and it was worth the four-year wait, as it’s one of the best of his career. This film is unlike anything he has ever done before.
Based on the William Lindsay Gresham novel of the same name, Nightmare Alley was first adapted in 1947 and centers on Stan, an ambitious young carny with a talent for manipulating people with a few well-chosen words. He hooks up with a female psychiatrist who, it turns out, is even more dangerous than he is.
With the film, Del Toro does a great job showing the dark and shady side of show business. This is some of the best directing of his career. His screenplay is even better as it’s full of some great twists and turns that are genuinely shocking that you won’t see coming. I loved the ending as it all came full circle and made you appreciate everything you had previously seen even more. It’s one of the better third acts and endings in my opinion. Some might not be fully down with it, but I felt it was effective. Del Toro’s film has fantastic production design, great score, and mesmerizing cinematography. The carnival scenes especially are standouts as they truly made it a place to be for a spectacle.
Bradley Cooper was perfectly cast as his natural charisma worked wonders to deceive and manipulate. The role also asked him to go to some dark places that he never had as an actor and excelled in that area. His performance in the film’s final minutes is incredibly haunting and some of the best work of his career.
Cate Blanchett isn’t in the film as much as the trailer would make you believe, but once she comes into the movie in the second half, she owns the film, and that is truly when the film becomes brilliant. She does a great job playing the classic femme fatale, oozing sexuality, and seduction. In addition, Blanchett has excellent chemistry with Cooper and truly gets the better of him in their scenes. I hope she earns an Oscar nomination for supporting actress because this is one of her best performances and precisely the kind of scene-stealing supporting performance that deserves awards.
I felt that Rooney Mara was wasted for most of the film, but she redeemed herself in my eyes with fantastic work in the third act. Despite my issues with how she was used in the first two acts, she worked well opposite Cooper.
Nightmare Alley has a large cast of award-winning actors who do a lot in minor roles. The particular standouts from the small supporting cast are Richard Jenkins, Willem Dafoe, Toni Collette, and David Strathairn. They all do a lot with a little in key vital roles. In addition, they all affect Stan’s development as a character in one way or another.
Nightmare Alley is the definition of a slow burn. While I was never bored, the film’s pacing was off a bit as the film took a bit to get going. The first half is beautiful to look at with all the carnival setting, but it isn’t as gripping as the excellent second half.
The film is also longer than it needs to be. The original from 1947 was 111 minutes, while this version is 150 minutes. While some of the new scenes were great, it could have been shorter as we’ve seen a less than 2-hour version of this story can work.
Overall, Nightmare Alley is a top-tier Del Toro film that I highly recommend you see in theaters. It’s a must-watch that can’t be missed.
