His relationship with a miscast Mara is rushed and barely etched and, instead, he conjures up more of a spark with an underused Toni Collette, who’s having fun as a fake medium. The locations end up feeling more developed and magnetic than the characters, none of whom have enough depth for a film of this length, despite a high-powered cast doing the very most.Ĭooper delves back into the slippery amorality that originally made him famous in films such as Wedding Crashers and My Little Eye with one of his most interesting performances of late, but at 46, he feels too old for the role of someone still figuring out who he really is and what he should be doing with his life (Tyrone Power was 33 in the original adaptation). What should have been a tight, murky little thriller becomes bloated Oscar bait, Del Toro struggling to justify the self-indulgent 140-minute length, his source material failing to provide him with the heft he seems to think it has. But the more compelling the film becomes aesthetically, the more I found myself disappointed by the script’s inability to grip with quite as much skill. Del Toro is a master world-builder and his lurid, often grotesque, vision of the past is as alluring as ever, with much credit owed to Tamara Deverell’s extravagant and intricate production design.

Visually, for the most part, such excess works.

From Nathan Johnson’s grand, menacing score to an almost supernaturally sinister sky forever on the brink of a storm, Nightmare Alley is not a film of half-measures.

Trickster cast