Nightmare Alley is the new film directed and co-written by Guillermo Del Toro and has an all star cast consisting of Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Toni Collette, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman, David Straithairn and Richard Jenkins among others and stars Cooper as a carnival worker in late 30s-early 40s America who learns the art of the grift through a magic show and uses it on the wealthy elite of New York City but one case may well prove to make or break his new skill.
Nightmare Alley has all the elements to make a very memorable noir film but for the most part I kinda got bored with this film, firstly the look of this film is gorgeous, the production design by Tamara Deverell and the cinematography by Dan Laustsen create a real moody world that feels very fitting for a noir story set in the early 40s for the most part, the carnival has this horror type vibe to it that also feels fun and inviting, the office of Cate Blanchett’s Dr character feels big and luxurious while also having ways to trap patients, the costumes of the 40s suits and gowns and carnival wear are very nice as well and there’s some very nice scenes set at night as the snow comes down.
Also there are a number of great performances, Mara/Collette/Straithairn/Jenkins/Dafoe/Perlman are all very good in this movie and all of them also understand the kind of film Del Toro is wanting to make and adapt themselves very well, Cate Blanchett meanwhile is simply fantastic and ideally would get a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards for this role as not only does she look like she just walked off the set of Laura from 1944 but is also the best she has been in a long time here, she smoulders in every scene and has you hooked the entire time its fantastic to watch.
Sadly Bradley Cooper is the weak link here and feels very badly miscast here and every time he came on screen he either barely said anything or was so dull to watch I just felt the film drag itself down and this is a 2 and a half hour film and at times you feel it mainly when Cooper was on screen and I’ve liked him in previous films but here he just bored me.
And so that was Nightmare Alley and its fine, it has some great visuals and performances, but Cooper’s miscasting dragged the film down for me, 2 out of 5.
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