Writer-director Tom Ford serves up a dish of revenge with measured restraint

Nocturnal Animals (Cert 15, 112 mins, Universal Pictures (UK) Ltd, Thriller/Romance/Action, available from February 27 on Amazon Video/BT TV Store/iTunes/Sky Store/TalkTalk TV Store and other download and streaming services, available from March 13 on DVD £19.99/Blu-ray £24.99)

Starring: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Isla Fisher, Ellie Bamber, Armie Hammer, Laura Linney.

Los Angeles gallery owner Susan Morrow (Amy Adams) is locked in an emotionally numb marriage to philandering businessman, Hutton (Armie Hammer). Out of the blue, Susan receives a manuscript from her first husband, Edward (Jake Gyllenhaal), whose sweet nature and humble Texan origins jarred with her monstrous mother, Anne (Laura Linney). With Hutton away on business, Susan devours the pages of Edward's manuscript and in her mind's eye, she imagines the lead character Tony Hastings (Gyllenhaal again), his wife Laura (Isla Fisher) and teenage daughter India (Ellie Bamber) taking a late night drive. On an empty stretch of desert highway, the family is terrorized by Ray Marcus (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and his buddies. Laura and India are abducted and local detective Bobby Andes (Michael Shannon) supports Tony as the husband discovers the women's horrifying fate. Nocturnal Animals is an impeccably tailored and gripping psychological thriller based on the novel Tony And Susan by Austin Wright. Writer-director Tom Ford serves up a dish of revenge with measured restraint, bolstered by powerhouse performances from Adams and Gyllenhaal. Buckinghamshire-born co-star Taylor-Johnson is truly menacing and Oscar nominee Shannon impresses in his key scenes. Ford employs the simple yet effective film-within-a-film structure, ricocheting between metallic, minimalist reality and sun-baked, sweat-stained fiction with aplomb. In both strands, innately good, yet tortured, protagonists reach crossroads and the agonized choices they make will gnaw at their souls for the rest of their days. The writer-director sadistically cranks up tension until we, like Susan, are helpless to glimpse into the heart of darkness of Edward's manuscript.

Rating: ****