MovieChat Forums > Nocturnal Animals (2016) Discussion > Did anyone at first think...

Did anyone at first think...

posted 8 years ago by SWLinPHX-2
10 replies | jump to latest

...the west Texax highway incident was something that really happened to them when they were married that he was writing about, the way Susan seemed so sad recalling or reliving it?

[–] Kazak23 8 years ago

Not me. If that were the case then Susan would be dead, right? I took it as Edward saying what Susan did to him was analogous to what happened to Tony on the road. A tad petulant if you ask me...

[–] SWLinPHX-2 8 years ago

Not me. If that were the case then Susan would be dead, right?

No, I'm taking about the scene on the road at night, long before we later see they were murdered.

[–] MettaQueensbridgeWarfare 8 years ago

Petulant? She ran off with another man and murdered their child. I think he had a right to be pissed.

[–] tigerfish50 8 years ago

Pissed for 20 years? If that was the case, he would be pathetic.
According to the laws of the country, she has the legal right to decide if she wants to carry the embryo to term. It's not a child.

[–] veil182 8 years ago

I watched the first 20 minutes of the movie before watching the whole thing a few days later. That's right when the first long NOVEL scene ends, driving away with the girls in the car. I assumed 100% the novel was inspired by true events and that his wife ended up leaving him because he wasn't man enough to protect them or something, or even gave him up so she and her daughter could escape.

I even thought that after they died in the novel; she immediately calls her daughter, as if to remind herself of how things really happened.

Anyways, I wasn't disappointed in this regard, but yes OP, I did.

[–] SWLinPHX-2 8 years ago

I watched the first 20 minutes of the movie before watching the whole thing a few days later. That's right when the first long NOVEL scene ends, driving away with the girls in the car. I assumed 100% the novel was inspired by true events and that his wife ended up leaving him because he wasn't man enough to protect them or something, or even gave him up so she and her daughter could escape.

I even thought that after they died in the novel; she immediately calls her daughter, as if to remind herself of how things really happened.

Anyways, I wasn't disappointed in this regard, but yes OP, I did.

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought, then later that he just changed the fact they died, and the daughter she calls in the present is that girl grown up.

Heck, I didn't even know that wasn't Amy Adams as the wife in the car.

[–] veil182 8 years ago

Haha yeah, Isla Fisher convinced me of this theory because they look so much alike. I was assuming Isla would continue playing fictional Susan throughout the movie.

[–] The_Boxing_Cat 8 years ago

The daughter Susan calls is her daughter -not Edward's.

[–] emilyay 8 years ago

No. It was clear he wrote the story to impact his ex in a negative way. While the highway incident never happened in real life, she knew the book had characters inspired by real people (including herself). Tony also knew that his ex had aborted his child (which was a big theme of the movie. The harsh novel was to make Amy Adams understand the pain and loss that he felt).

But essentially, Tony likes to write about himself (which is what that one scene was about, where him and Amy Adams get into a fight about his writing. She says he should write about other people). The irony of course being, after Amy Adams ruined his life, he was able to write a story with him in it, that was extremely violent and horrible. A story that captured how he felt because of what his ex did to him.

Long story short, Tony purposely wrote the story about a mother and daughter - that was taken from him because he was too weak. He wanted the story to hurt her, and impact herZ

[–] antonhedborn 8 years ago

Yes I thought that at first, but then thought i`t were a bit odd if he was the only one who was the same person as in real life. However after she called her daughter it was no question about that the whole story had symbolic and metaphorical values from their relationship and break up. Also seeing how old her daughter was they definitely had a child during their marriage, which also kinda confirmed the values of the story.