(CNN)Director/co-writer Guillermo del Toro veers retired of his customary lane successful "Nightmare Alley," a gorgeous-looking but narratively flawed movie that astatine its champion evokes the lurid thrillers of the 1940s portion meandering excessively overmuch successful between. Bradley Cooper fills the cardinal role, but Cate Blanchett steals the amusement arsenic a Barbara Stanwyck-style femme fatale.
Adapted from a 75-year-old caller (previously turned into a movie with Tyrone Power), the movie focuses connected a young alien who leaves down a scarred past and stumbles into the institution of a traveling carnival successful the 1930s (the vibe of the HBO bid "Carnivale" is strong), yet graduating from lifting and hoisting to mastering the mentalist act.
Cooper's Stanton Carlisle should seemingly beryllium younger, a spot of casting that requires a definite suspension of disbelief astatine first. Putting that aside, the movie doesn't afloat footwear into cogwheel until astir halfway done its 2 ½-hour moving time, arsenic Stanton decides to permission and currency successful with his psychic regular successful the large city, moving disconnected with the wide-eyed Molly (Rooney Mara).
It's successful that mounting wherever Stanton encounters Lilith Ritter (Blanchett), a chill and alluring scientist who has the imaginable to unfastened doors among the affluent and powerful. He besides ignores the warnings from his carny bosses to debar doing a "spook show" by pretending to talk to the dead, utilizing his speechmaking skills to soothe the emotionally wounded elite to which she introduces him by saying what they privation to perceive astir departed loved ones, an progressively perilous grifting act.
Del Toro is renowned for his ocular benignant dating backmost to movies similar "Pan's Labyrinth" and much precocious the Oscar-winning "The Shape of Water," and helium turns that escaped some connected the carnival and Stanton's posh surroundings, with the erstwhile bringing to caput Tim Burton's flair for garish imagery.
Still, "Nightmare Alley" spends excessively agelong spinning its wheels earlier getting to the much pertinent twists astir the dangers of conning the incorrect people, arsenic good arsenic the shadowy motivations of each concerned.
The movie frankincense proves astir enjoyable for its sumptuous look and throwback atmosphere, with a loaded formed -- including Willem Dafoe, David Strathairn, Toni Collette, Richard Jenkins and Ron Perlman -- receiving a jolt of energy whenever Blanchett's connected the screen. (It's her 2nd showy supporting show of the month, on with the Netflix satire "Don't Look Up.")
The existent challenge, ultimately, volition beryllium whether the abundant prima powerfulness and celebrated manager offers capable of an inducement for the rubes (in carny speak) to manus implicit their coins, particularly for a movie that's hard to picture and doesn't truly autumn into the genres for which Del Toro is known. The imaginable of serving arsenic counter-programming to the caller "Spider-Man" for a somewhat much big assemblage mightiness beryllium its champion hope, and that seems arsenic wispy arsenic Stanton's mustache.
Del Toro's movies are inevitably lush, and the casting and ambiance present supply a important come-on to movie noir aficionados, who volition astir apt drawback up with "Nightmare Alley" implicit time. As for the contiguous challenge, that transportation mightiness not beryllium arsenic effectual successful luring radical into the theatrical tent.
"Nightmare Alley" premieres Dec. 17 successful US theaters. It's rated R.
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