Animals
With his sixth directorial outing, Ben Affleck cranks up the intensity for his LA-set marital thriller.
Setting the agenda: Kerry Washington and Ben Affleck
Photo courtesy of Netflix.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Standing in the smouldering ruins of people’s former homes and on sidewalks clogged with pop-up tents housing the homeless, LA mayoral candidate Mark Kimball says he wants to make a difference: “I want to help people. I shall not lie to you.” Lies, though, are the lifeblood of political office and there’s not that much difference between people and animals. In the words of the enigmatic Dayle Burton (Gillian Anderson), “humans are animals who tell stories.” One suspects that she’s not talking about the bedtime variety we convey to our children before lights out. But she has a point: do our four-legged friends ever tell each other porkies?
Ben Affleck plays Mark Kimball and it has to be said that there is a certain all-American dependency about the actor that we might want to trust, regardless of what the tabloids have to say. Affleck also directs the film, and co-wrote the screenplay with Connor O. McIntyre and Billy Ray, giving all the best lines to Gillian Anderson, a highly-paid operative way off the official radar.
Ms Anderson’s unknowable outsider enters Kimball’s Maple Grove Drive residence to offer an expensive ray of hope. Having sunk all his money into his election campaign – without consulting his wife Abbie (Kerry Washington) – Kimball finds himself the victim of a kidnapping plot that threatens the life of his and Abbie’s son. Before they can proceed with the kidnapper’s demands, they must put all their cards on the table. As it happens, Mark Kimball’s copybook isn’t that much blotted, while Abbie’s infidelity is a secret that she wishes to keep that way. But what will we sacrifice in order to save our children? Our home? Our lives? Our morals?
Animals may not have anything particularly new to say – the moral thrust of its narrative is identical to the premise of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest – but sometimes big ideas need to be recycled. Affleck has proven his chops as a filmmaker, having won innumerable accolades for his directorial work, including an Oscar for Argo (2012), and here he delivers a slick, dramatic thriller that successfully juggles its numerous ethical agendas with aplomb. Having seen this film, one wonders who would even dare to enter the political arena knowing what could be at stake.
A long-time Los Angeles native, Ben Affleck shows his troubled city in all its current paroxysms of social and environmental decay. One suspects that the movie star might not make a bad mayor himself, no worse than fellow actor Arnold Schwarzenegger who was governor in the years 2003 to 2011. He does know how to direct actors and Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson are perfect opposites of the emotional barometer, bringing an intensity to an impossible situation which is enough to give more sensitive viewers a panic attack. The film was not well-received by critics, largely one suspects because the premise seems overly familiar, but as an atmospheric, punchy thriller it is compelling enough, particularly to those who have not seen way too many movies. Affleck has proven yet again that he damn well knows how to direct a scene.
Cast: Ben Affleck, Kerry Washington, Gillian Anderson, Adriana Paz, Luis Gerardo Méndez, Steven Yeun, Ray Fisher, Christopher Woodley, Jacob Estrada, Gayle King.
Dir Ben Affleck, Pro Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Brad Weston, Dani Bernfeld and Collin Creighton, Screenplay Connor O. McIntyre, Billy Ray and Ben Affleck, Ph Robert Elswit, Pro Des Theresa Guleserian, Ed William Goldenberg and Christopher Rouse, Music Harry Gregson-Williams, Costumes Trish Summerville, Sound Brendan Feeney.
Artists Equity/Makeready/Fifth Season-Netflix.
108 mins. USA. 2026. UK and US Rel: 9 October 2026. Cert. 15.
