Nightmare Alley: What If Del Toro Made A Shyamalan Movie?

The spoiler-free answer to the question in the headline is, you would get a beautiful, well directed, amazingly cast, superbly acted … twist movie with a twist you see coming a mile down the Depression-era highway. For a bit more of how and why that is the case with Nightmare Alley — also spoiler-free — read on below.

The psychological thriller Nightmare Alley is, like the 1947 movie of the same name starring Tyrone Power and Joan Blondell, based on the 1947 novel by William Lindsay Graham. This 2021 version is directed by Guillermo del Toro and written by del Toro and Kim Morgan. It stars Bradley Cooper, Rooney Mara, Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, Ron Perlman, Richard Jenkins, Toni Colette, David Strathairn — to say this cast is stacked is a huge understatement.

To summarize the plot as described in trailers and promotional material:

“When charismatic but down-on-his-luck Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper) endears himself to clairvoyant Zeena (Toni Collette) and her has-been mentalist husband Pete (David Strathairn) at a traveling carnival, he crafts a golden ticket to success, using this newly acquired knowledge to grift the wealthy elite of 1940s New York society.”

The promo blurb goes on to describe a bit of what happens in Act 3 of the movie, but I think it is too spoilery for what is a thriller movie with a twist, so I left it out, even though it is OK in the minds of the marketing people.

That describes what is probably the biggest problem with this otherwise very good film — almost all the leads are cons, hustlers or grifters. And I don’t mean the funny, charming “let’s con the evil billionaire” types from Ocean’s 11. No these are the “let’s take advantage of drunks and addicts to skim the little money the common folk have” kind of scum.

In fact, del Toro should be celebrated for making a movie that has all the trappings (and tension) of a supernatural thriller but eschews the supernatural aspects at every turn by having the grifters explain how each con works. But that means you are listening to crooks be crooks at almost every moment of this movie. Sure, some are charming, like Strathairn’s Pete, but most are various versions of creepy (Dafoe) or rotten (most everyone else). Rooney Mara’s Molly is perhaps the most sympathetic of all the carny grifters, but her character is something pretty rare in a del Toro movie — a damsel with almost no agency.

If Bradley Cooper wasn’t killing it in the lead role, I probably wouldn’t have lasted through Nightmare Alley‘s 2.5-hour length. But I realize that is a personal taste issue — I couldn’t watch the very well-reviewed 2020 anime Great Pretender for more than four episodes because of its celebration of cons and grifters.

Every del Toro movie takes a little more time than most films in lingering on the production design to truly immerse you in the world of the story. In this case it is the perfectly executed grit of the late Depression-era rural America, the janky-meets-artistic design of the carnivals of the era, and the gorgeous art deco world of early 1940s New York City. Seriously, I would kill to have Cate Blanchett’s psychologist office. Director of photography Dan Laustsen (who also did The Shape of Water for del Toro) lights the movie with some of the best noir lighting I’ve seen.

Two other things mar this otherwise well-crafted noir thriller. Mara’s Molly is sadly underdeveloped for a character so important to the story; and Cooper’s Stan makes a single decision upon which the twist hangs completely, and that decision seems pretty out of character. Anything else about that would be too much of a spoiler, so I’ll have to leave it that vague.

Ultimately, Nightmare Alley is just a bit too long. I would have discarded some of the gorgeous lingering shots of the production design (and likely cried about it) in favor of more character development and the incredible acting. Richard Jenkins in particular continues his path of recognition as one of the best character actors working in the past few decades.

I give Nightmare Alley (Searchlight Pictures, R, 2 hrs 30 mins) a 4 out of 5.

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