NOCTURNAL ANIMALS... what doesn't kill you, make you stronger

For all those hopeful romantics we have feel good movies, reminders that life can be full of surprises and a happy ending, encouraging us to fight to achieve our dreams and pursue our feelings and ideals. But also for all those realistics, we have drama, a reminder that life indeed has surprises but not all of them are always what we wanted or expected, life is made by our choices and some through backs from destiny that we have to confront in order to move on or live with it. We get to share with other that we might like and others that we won't but will cross our paths for better or worse. We try to leave as good as possible, dealing with others expectations and our own believes, others actions versus our ideals, all put together to make us stronger in some way and transform that initial person into someone that we might recognize or not, but why do we get live trapped in misery and selfishness? Why do he get to listen to all those voices that only dictate a way that is theirs and just a few times is the one should have been the one for us? Why do we have to choose between be prayers or predators? Why sometimes we need to make things more complicated than how they are already? We really need a reminder of how complex and complicated we as humans can be? Life is real and is not easy and for anyone with any doubt about it, we have for you "Nocturnal Animals" (2016).

A new film directed and written by awarded and popular fashion designer Tom Ford, in his second work behind the camera, orchestrating cinematography as his best and original form, using basics and classics from cinema history, is proving that has the natural talent to pull the right strings to create a story that will move anyone in so many forms and directions that only critics dare to call it art but for him is just a way to express a unique vision from this upscale world, twisted with materialism and narcissism that as beautiful it si to look at, feel so painful when getting closer to you.  Full with a terrific and talented cast that is not afraid to welcome some cameos that feel like a perfect fit to the story, including celebrities as Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Michael Shannon, Laura Linney, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Armie Hammer, among others that deserve to be kept as a surprise. Using cinematography language as it's  best, score, lighting, photography will take you through the devastating stages of a story inside another story that ends where any road will lead after making any choice, leaving or dying with the consequences or the decisions we make.

This is the story of a couple, one that has already split and we only get to use part of their story by flashbacks. She is a beautiful girl, Susan, coming from a wealthy family in Texas, that gave her the oportunity to be whatever she wants, so she does in the art scene, until she meets Edward an idealistic romantic young guy that as an aspiring writer sees live through different eyes than her, getting to the point where at the beginning she idealizes his life and is caught by his words. He was her first high school crush and so was her for him, when they ran into each other in NY, ending in a date that will take them to realize that opposites attract but also being young makes you feel adventurous and ready to challenge family and others to achieve your dream and goals or simply get away with what you want. But by the team we meet Susan, she is as miserable as any of her portraits in her successful gallery, she seems lost, empty, like life has been sucked out of her. Living in a beautiful house that as modern as luxury as it is feels as cold as her relationship with her second husband, a man that looks out of any men's magazine but as any model in it, has no passion or affection to express to her or no one. He just lives for success and himself, even when she is trying to save their marriage, she can see all the red flags that are sinking it just live in denial, having nothing but loneliness in her eyes.

Until one day, she receives a gift from Edward, her first husband, that hasn't seen in years. This package happens to be a copy of his first novel, but we don't know anything about him from the present but only what we learn from his past, a charismatic guy with big dreams and heart that wanted to succeed but feel betrayed when his wife is not validating his work. So we learn more about him from this novel, a story of a fictional family that after a car accident got involved with three young guys and a sheriff that will help them in a quest of revenge. So fiction clashes with reality when the character and Edward seem to go on a similar path, exploring and growing for what they are to what they need to be under the circumstances pushed by others actions when they just try to live their own way. This story will shake Susan, that will realize what she left and re discover her feeling that were covered for a chase of a fortune and success that came under her family speech and an ideal marriage has left her with anything but the title, so when she wakes up to this world and realizes what she become and how far she is from what she wanted to be is when feelings and ideas come to the table but timing might not be ideal because after all she made a big mistake leaving things in the wrong way instead of staying and fight for them, she chose other and ran away. She got what she thought wanted or needed, a perfect life, with a perfect career, house and husband but none of them feel right or make her happy and alive, complete.

How easy seems and feels to take the easy exit when we feel trapped, chase by those skeletons in the closet that fight against our ideals and dreams. Our head is full of ideas that might never happen because when comes to our daily basis we are scare to have them, we are scared to be or find happiness, we hide under excuses and false goals to stay away of what we say we want. The fact that things seem complicated in paper might not be the same way in reality, and same to the opposite because perfection doesn't exist and what is and means success and love and money and glory if we don't feel worth it, or have someone to share it, someone that represents all the love and passion for what we believe and care for, not just for what is supposed to be in paper, but fighting to bring the best of us and sadly sometimes the ones that hurt us the most are the ones to thank for our strength and the lessons learned because after them we definitely won't be the same because after fighting and surviving the fact of be left behind will put us in a situation as delicate and painful as any life or death battle, but what can't kill you will make you stronger, and definitely we need to learn from our mistakes and stop hiding behind them just to avoid the awful truth, we are not perfect and neither the others so finding a life that might not sound like ideal for others standard might be just what we need, and opposite side of what we are used to, that will complement us, but we need to be strong enough to defend it against the ones will think is not the best for us because at the end we are all animals trying to survive and looking for our best interest not for the others.