Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) is set adrift in the world without much of a purpose until he stumbles into employment at Clem Hoatley’s (Willem Dafoe) freaks and geeks carnival.  There, he begins to apprentice for a mentalism act, Zeena the Seer (Toni Collette) and her husband Pete (David Strathairn).  As his skills as a performer grow, so does his attraction to The Electric Lady, Molly (Rooney Mara), and soon the two depart the carnival life to tackle the world and all that is in it.  As Carlisle’s clients become more and more prestigious, the line between what is an act and what is real begins to blur. 

Guillermo del Toro, in his follow-up to Oscar-winning The Shape of Water (2017), directs the noir remake, Nightmare Alley, for Searchlight.  Originally made in 1947, del Toro’s take on the story is imbued with his trademark style of dark fantasy and a deep color palette of blues, browns, and greens.  Dan Lausten’s cinematography makes for a handsome and impressive looking film and adds a great atmosphere to the director’s least supernatural film to date.  More ardent fans of the director will find lots familiar with the overall look and feel of the film and while it is very pleasant on the eyes, the feeling of DeJa’Vu here is unavoidable given the shared aesthetic across the majority of del Toro’s body of work. 

At the forefront of del Toro’s latest nightmarish fable is Cooper who leads the film through its three very distinct acts with varying success as the leading man.  He is a large presence on screen and as such he stumbles as the homeless drifter still learning the craft of mentalism.  As Carlisle perfects his skill and can become more confident and showier in his act, Cooper begins to fit better into the world of the film as he can fill the screen with this larger-than-life persona that does not feel at odds with where the character is in his own development. 

The first act at Hoatley’s Carnival is the biggest hurdle the film must cross as there is an incredible amount of ground to cover.  It finds Carlisle torn between three stories – with Hoatley and the Beast, his training with Pete, and his budding infatuation with Molly – neither of which are really able to jump out as the true starting off point for the film.  On one hand, Hoatley adds a lot of mystery and intrigue to the plot, but on the other Pete and Zeena occupy much of Carlisle’s time, and on yet another third hand it is clear that Molly will play an important part in the film even though their relationship blossoms rather quickly and out of nothing.   

It is not until the second act that Nightmare Alley both focuses on its narrative and allows Molly to develop more as a character.  Back at the carnival, there were many allusions to morality, but the film never pried too deeply into those themes, until Molly is given a voice here in the second act.  She understands this is a job, but she does not want Carlisle to begin using his mentalism as a spook show to take advantage of people grieving over the loss of a loved one.  Greed, of course, is a powerful temptation and those who are desperate for reconnection will be willing to pay whatever it takes.  It soon takes over Carlisle, and despite Molly’s wishes for his act to remain above the line, it is not long until the performer has had a sampling of all of the deadly sins.  

Mara, however, even when allowed to develop, plays a secondary lead female to Dr. Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett), a phycologist for the wealthy elite of New York City.  Ritter is as mysterious as she is nefarious and once she sinks her hooks into Carlisle, there is no escape.  The two continually spar with each other always trying to catch the other off guard which makes for some dynamic scenes.  Like two apex predators sizing each other up in a deadly dance, Ritter and Carlisle are never totally trusting of the other, but they both have an understanding of the necessity of the other in the context of their larger scheming plans.  After proving first his skill with her at a performance and then his loyalty by meeting with Judge Kimball (Peter MacNeill), Blanchett and the film finally focus on their true target: Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins), a rich but remorseful widower. 

Kimball, as is par for the course with Nightmare Alley, spends much of his introductory scenes as a mysterious figure with dark secrets lying just underneath the surface.  Jenkins brings a lot of menacing energy to his performance which is what the third act of the film is centered upon.  He is ferocious with his short-tempered anger and money enough to bankroll his wildest desires into being, and he has chosen Carlisle to help manifest his dearly departed wife so that he may have some closure in his life.  As this plotline unfolds and the film nears its conclusion, del Toro reminds us of just how brutal and nasty he can be to his characters as the violence is exponentially more gruesome than anything that came before it in the film. 

Through this all, we are treated to obscure flashbacks of Carlisle’s past as he cared for his ailing father (Bill MacDonald).  These scenes, of which one even opens the film, give us some context as to how Carlisle ended up at Hoatley’s carnival, but returning to them in as many quick glimpses as del Toro does here seems largely ineffective.  Obscuring the story of Carlisle’s past and delivering it in disjointed flashback sequences does not serve the story so much as to create intrigue around our leading man, but rather drives the forward momentum of the script to a screeching halt.  In a film that centers itself on revealing facts unknown of the past, it seems an odd choice to deliver this backstory in such a disjointed way, especially as the result has little to add to the overall themes of the film.   

Nightmare Alley is a winding house of mirrors that, while it is intriguing and captivating at times it is hard to say that it is 100% effective or efficient.  At 40 minutes longer than the original noir classic, del Toro’s film feels heavy and weighted down at times, especially in the unwieldy carnival scenes that occupy the first act of the film, though those scenes are occupied by more interesting characters.  As a film, it is del Toro returning to the well and while it is certainly not a lesser work from the director, the law of diminishing returns is starting to prove true for his tested formula. The saving grace here is the impeccably chosen cast who give it their all as this troupe of oddities that occupy this stylized fantasy world as well as the morally corrupt upper class of 1940’s New York City who replace wealth for goodness.