Guillermo del Toro has an uneven track record with me ever since I first was introduced to him with his amazingly atmospheric Pan’s Labyrinth. Upon watching that film, I felt compelled to delve deeper into his oeuvre and found that I really enjoyed his aesthetic in such films as Cronos and The Devil’s Backbone. Even his more commercial films like Hellboyand Blade II were guilty pleasures that further cemented me as a fan of his works. That ship ran aground, though, in 2013 when I went to see Pacific Rim, a movie I was looking forward to primarily because he was directing it. That over-produced throwaway of a film left me cold and disappointed. Crimson Peak two years later was even worse. He won me back a little with his Oscar-winning The Shape of Water, a movie that was polarizing but enchanted me to no end.
It took four years for him to come back to the big screen with a new film, but what he came up with was enticing. He was going to remake a 1940s drama entitled Nightmare Alley, a film about the carnival and a conman taking advantage of people in emotional distress. It seemed like an odd choice for del Toro, but when the trailer dropped, it had that distinct tone to it that marks all of his films. At the time of my first viewing, I had yet to see the original film and thus had no idea what I was getting into. That’s probably for the best because there are twists to this narrative that are best experienced having no previous insight. The final result is a film that is faithful to the original film and the novel it is based on but is also very much a Guillermo del Toro film. It’s also along the same lines as his more recent works, which, to me at least, is a detriment. So much of his more recent works are overindulgent, and this one is no exception. It looks fantastic but really didn’t need to be as long as it is. The original film is one of Hollywood’s golden era greats and gets the same message across in less than two hours.
As this is a film lacking supernatural elements of any kind, it is a bit of a departure for del Toro. He considered the book unfilmable in total but latched onto elements of it that made the original film so beloved, including the atmosphere and setting. There are some terribly dark elements to that book, and those elements compelled the director to choose this as his next project after The Shape of Water. Guillermo insists that this is not a remake of the 1947 film but a readaptation of the novel. As I mentioned in my review of True Grit (2010), that is just semantics and means nothing. The two films are beat-for-beat the same plot and the same character moments. This rationalizing the adaptation is nothing more than trying to avoid the stigma of remakes that has so unfairly plagued Hollywood’s reputation of late.
Remakes have existed since the early days of movie making, and if there is justification for it to be done, there is nothing wrong with them. In this case, the biggest reason to remake Nightmare Alley is to bring a compelling morality tale to modern audiences. Guillermo relied on hiring a truly talented cast of actors, including the hugely popular Bradley Cooper, and infusing the whole affair with his unique brand of flair. Unfortunately, that didn’t save this film when it released against Spider-Man: No Way Home. It got drowned in the Marvel/Sony hype and didn’t even break even. Guillermo has since limited himself to making movies for Netflix.
Bradley Cooper stars as Stan Carlisle, a man with a secret. We first see him hiding a corpse under the floorboards of a run-down building before setting it on fire. Afterwards, he walks into a traveling carnival where he observes a geek show carnival freak eating the head off a live chicken and wonders to himself what could bring a man so low as to end up in that position. He accepts a temporary job for the carnival that he manages to convert into more permanent employment. There he befriends Madame Zeena (Toni Collette) and her husband Pete (David Strathairn), a mentalist act that have scaled things back in more recent years for reasons they won’t talk about, just that Pete got too involved and has since turned to alcohol. They keep a special code book with key phrases and enunciations that can be communicated between each other for the purpose of their act but will not share it with anyone, nor sell it. Stan makes several attempts to sneak looks at the code book but eventually, in the guise of sneaking Pete a bottle of alcohol, gives him some wood-grain alcohol instead, poisoning the man. With Pete gone, Stan is able to read and memorize the code book.
Meanwhile, his sense of showmanship brings him into contact with Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara), an attractive young girl whose act involves electricity. Stan transforms her act into something far more spectacular, and she is soon in love with him. This angers Bruno, the strong man (Ron Perlman), who was good friends with her father and feels protective of her. After the carnival almost gets shut down by the local law enforcement, Stan decides to leave and set up shop as a professional mentalist. Molly agrees to go with him as his lover and assistant. But things go from parlor tricks to the more serious when a local psychologist, Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), tries to expose the act and gets out-maneuvered by him. She sets him up with a judge and his wife who are dealing with the loss of their son in the war. Stan takes advantage of their grief and profits from it, thinking giving them comfort is being altruistic. The next mark, though, is far more serious. Grindle (Richard Jenkins) is a dangerous man who is feeling sorrow for an evil act that cost the life of his mistress and wants Stan to contact her from beyond so that he can offer his repentance to her directly. Stan unwisely believes that he can do practically anything at this point and schemes a way to make it happen, siphoning money off the man in the process.
At its heart, this is a Greek tragedy. There are hints at Icarus and Oedipus in the story as well as others. Stan’s journey has a definite end in sight early on as he stands by a railing and looks down at the circus geek biting into the neck of the chicken. What could bring a man that low in life, he’s thinking? Later, when he is having a meal with Clem (Willem Dafoe), the carnival owner, he learns how these places find someone to fit the role of a geek. One of the key elements is alcoholism, which we get a sense early on that Stan has a problem with. He proudly states that he doesn’t drink whenever someone offers him one, but it is rightfully pointed out that he visibly recoils whenever it is offered. His alcoholism isn’t outright stated, but then again, nothing is. Guillermo refuses to spoon-feed you the answers to everything; he trusts the audience to be smart enough to piece it all together themselves.
Cate Blanchett is absolutely nailing the character of Lilith Ritter here. She is caught off guard when Stan beats her at her own game early on; but she also ascertains that he is a man she can easily out-maneuver and manipulate, so she uses her position as a psychiatrist to set him up with potential clients he can con with information gathered from her. All the while, she is playing the long con and slowly coaxing him onto her couch so she can get damning evidence from him. She also has her own scars, presumably given to her by Grindle, but that is never confirmed in the plot, only inferred. Stan is so full of himself and so sure of his abilities that he never sees how deftly he is being manipulated by her. Meanwhile, Molly is seeing this devil’s relationship developing between Lilith and Stan and wants to leave and return to the carnival. But Stan convinces her to do just this one last job, pretend to be the ghost of Grindle’s dead mistress, and they will be rolling in money and can leave town forever.
There is nothing inherently wrong with the 1947 movie aside from it being a little dated. It tells the story at a far more brisk pace, but it never feels like it is rushing through the plot. The 2021 remake does nail the atmosphere better since it didn’t need to adhere to the Hays Code, and that was precisely what Guillermo del Toro was going for. He announced early on that the film was going for an R rating and that it wouldn’t shy away from the horrors the novel had on display. These things were primarily hinted at but not shown in the older film. This makes the newer film feel more realistic, but it also makes it feel over-indulgent at times, lingering on details that are there for atmosphere but also drag out the pacing. While the film never falls into the realm of boring, it does overstay its welcome.
It also foreshadows the end of the film almost from the beginning. We know when Stan is looking down at the carnival geek that he is seeing his own destiny. This is further emphasized when he and Clem are discussing how a carnival gets their geeks. Finally, nearing the end, Stan has been rendered broke and homeless, trading his last vestiges of his humanity for a drink of alcohol. He hides out in a train car, barricading himself behind chicken crates. If you haven’t figured out where this is all heading by this point, then I can’t help you.
The final scene finds Stan, a broken man, begging for work at another carnival. The old one has gone out of business and been sold off to a new owner who takes one look at Stan, humbled and disheveled, reeking of booze. He has no use for a mentalist, calling the trade old-fashioned. But he does have one position open, a geek. Stan is laughing and crying at the same time as he proclaims, “I was born for this.” He knows at this point that he is of no more worth and that he has fallen to the level where this is all that he is anymore. It’s chilling and oddly fitting all at the same time.
This is a film that failed to find an audience in large part because of a studio that had little faith in it and dumped it into theaters at a time when it was impossible for it to compete at the box office. The consensus at the time was that it would find an audience on streaming and home media platforms, but that really hasn’t happened, either. It’s not a great film, but it is deserving of more than it ultimately got. It should be seen, but it’s basically been forgotten right alongside the original, relegated to the long list of titles that are good films, but few have bothered to seek out.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale, and Bradley Cooper
Best Cinematography: Dan Lausten
Best Costume Design: Luis Sequeira
Best Production Design: Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau
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Release Date: December 17, 2021
Running Time: 150 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn
Directed By: Guillermo del Toro
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