Film Review: Nightmare Alley
(This review contains spoilers and was originally written in early 2022)
I cannot immediately recall the name of Bradley Cooper’s character in Nightmare Alley. It’s almost certainly something clipped and monosyllabic that begins with a consonant, and is shortened from a full form that is only uttered in religious ceremonies and legal proceedings. This doesn’t really matter, because I know the character’s story and his archetype so well, as each is something we’ve seen a thousand times in movies for the past seventy or eighty years.
That’s not a criticism of Nightmare Alley as a film. Quite the opposite, as it allows us to immediately connect with the main character in both his formative and final state, and heavily foreshadows the transition between the two. Provided you count yourself as someone who appreciates Guiermo Del Toro’s filmmaking, the film itself should go over as a pleasant, if unremarkable sojourn through familiar territory. While not as whimsical or far flung as Pan’s Labyrinth or The Shape of Water, Nightmare Alley shows his signature palette and balance of characters as truly as these earlier films. Moreover, if the aforementioned titles weren’t quite for you, you may find that Nightmare Alley is toned down enough to be enjoyable.
We open with the scene of a young man named Stanton (Bradley Cooper; shortened to Stan–my first paragraph was right on all counts!) placing a corpse below the floorboards in a small Dust Bowl-era shack, which subsequently burned. Thereafter, our protagonist, still short on personal provenance, turns up looking for work as a roustabout at the local traveling carnival. Cooper’s acting throughout this first leg is warm but broody, and the audience will anticipate that there’s darkness both ahead and behind for our man. I warned you that this wasn’t new ground, but if you’re not dismayed by that early revelation, let’s qualify this as above-average.
Searchlight Pictures
Fans of HBO’s Carnivale or American Horror Story’s fourth season will be able to picture the setting and perhaps apply Del Toro’s trademark color saturation without my description. This is a dirty carnival–there are freaks, geeks, outcasts, and the scantily clad who will inevitably draw the ire of local law enforcement.
Between set-ups and tear-downs along with the occasionally less savory task of geek-wrangling, Stan falls in with Madam Zeena (Toni Collette) and Pete (David Strathairn), a pair of magicians always on the watch for their next mark. From them, Stan learns to read and manipulate people, to give hope to the desperate and part them from their coin. It’s a trick I felt he already knew, but it doesn’t hurt the audience to see this turn clearly articulated.
It’s all charming enough, but I’m waiting for something in this film to ask me to look sidelong at it, to hint at something darker coming down the way that I’m not expecting. The story right now is an enjoyable hum, but it needs to strike a new chord soon.
Searchlight Pictures
Stan puts his newly-sharpened skills to use against a sheriff who comes to clear out the carnival after a few locals lose their pride, and thus endears himself to his new employers. Eventually, he rises in stature enough to charm the outfit’s ingénue, Molly (Rooney Mara), with whom he develops an improved act and eventually elopes. Abruptly, Cooper stops running from his past and starts moving toward a future vision that is the film’s best kept secret up until this point–what does Stan actually want?
Next comes a key moment in the film, and it is a testament to Del Toro’s storytelling prowess. I was pulling for Stan and Molly at this point, hoping they would turn the lessons of their young lives into something that could blossom. Perhaps it’s just the pandemic, or the fact that I’m in the exhausting first weeks of fatherhood, but I was wanting to hope for something positive despite the fact that everything in the film so far promised ruin. That’s important, and impactful; rooting for the doomed is one of the most fun parts of horror titles, and Del Toro got me to do it here despite making a familiar and somewhat ho-hum rendition of this story thus far.
Searchlight Pictures
Up until now, Stan has been largely a blank slate. He’s willing to do the dirty work of the traveling show while managing to stay on the better side of most of his fellow carnies (the always-excellent Ron Perlman being an exception). But with the capture of Molly’s heart, the film moves into its second half, fast-forwarding two years to a room filled with fancy people, Stan and Molly at its center. We see that the couple has reimagined the old act learned from Madam Zeena and Pete, turning it into something that fleeces those at the other end of the economic pyramid.
Searchlight Pictures
This is the feint, and the gut-punch follows. Immediately after concluding their act we see Stan berate Molly for some small mistake. All of the tenderness from earlier scenes is washed away, and I had to remember this story is a tragedy as seemingly all carnival stories are. Stan is a man who took his turn for the better and spoiled it with greed; Molly is but a sacrifice on his Icarisian journey. It rings a bit hollow, the grifter destined to destroy himself and the woman going with him, but it’s the story we’re getting.
From here, we accelerate into the final arc of the story, in which Molly, Stan, and newcomer Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), seek bigger prey for their schemes. The closing hour of the film hits hardest, in terms of both storytelling and cinematographic aplomb, and hence I won’t rehash it development-by-development. At this point you know enough to decide if it’s for you, and you know where we’re going in the broadest sense.
My final sentiment is that Nightmare Alley is a well-made, if unambitious retelling of an old story–clearly one that Del Toro always wanted to have his own crack at. I just wish he’d been a bit more vociferous about working out what spin he would put on it. He’s not a director I’d normally accuse of phoning in a project, but this kind of feels like that. Perhaps I just wanted something different, something more distinct; coming off of The Shape of Water, it’s not unreasonable to expect. Nightmare Alley is a weaker entry in his catalog, but quality writing and a top-notch cast means it’s still worth seeing. Once.
Verdict: 5/10
Strengths
Great cast
Trademark cinematography just always works
Accessible to those who didn’t care for more recent Del Toro films
Weaknesses
Ultimately, an unambitious adaptation
Predictable plot progression
You may also like: Road to Perdition, Carnivale, the music of Tom Waits
