Kelly Reichardt’s (“Meek’s Cutoff”) “Night Moves” is one of
two movies I’ve seen at the Seattle International Film Festival this year about
dam removal. The other, “DamNation” is a documentary that charts the
environmental impact, corruption in government programs, and the long, twisted
history of damn building in the United States. That film plays as a nice
companion piece to “Night Moves,” a fictionalized thriller about a trio of
environmental activists who take it upon themselves to remove a particular dam
that has a stranglehold on an Oregon river.
If you’ve ever spent much time around any collection of
activists or radical types—environmental or otherwise—you’ll recognize just
about every one of the folks portrayed in “Night Moves.” The action centers on
Josh (Jesse Eisenberg). A loner who keeps to himself, he’s sick of the empty
rhetoric and lack of meaningful activity in the movement, and decides to do
something more direct. He enlists the help of Dena (Dakota Fanning), a rich
girl playing revolutionary who has no idea what she’s actually getting into; an
idealist with no sense of the true gravity of the situation. Harmon (Peter
Sarsgaard), an ex-military man who can’t stomach the endless debate and
complacency, rounds out their team. Together the three hatch a plan to blow up
a particularly out of date, pointless dam, and must deal with the consequences,
those they expected, as well as the unforeseen variety.
For a movie like this, you may expect a preachy,
message-heavy 112-minutes, but that’s not what you get. “Night Moves” isn’t
about the politics either way, and is that much stronger for leaving that
element out; you never feel beaten about the head and neck by an obvious moral.
Either way, you run the risk alienating large portions of your audience. While
the characters do talk about their motivations, they do so as part of their
characterization, and it’s not a focal point. The act itself, the ensuing
repercussions, and the impact on the key players, are the primary concerns.
Tension comes as Josh, Dena, and Harmon piece together their plan, building a
bomb, strategizing the location, and covering up their tracks as they go along.
This lack of an agenda isn’t the arena where “Night Moves”
avoids falling into easy cliché. For instance, at one point the situation could
easily have devolved into kind of jealous love triangle, but Reichardt and co-writer
Jonathan Raymond sidestep this, toying with your expectations. They juxtapose
the desire for more immediate, visible change of Josh and his crew with the
longer view of Sean (Kai Lennox). He and his circle of family and friends run the
cooperative organic farm where Josh works, in the hope of enacting a smaller,
more gradual, sustainable change. Again, “Night Moves” doesn’t necessarily push
you towards one side or another, it gives you options and lets you decide for
yourself.
If you’re looking for a nice, tidy finale, with everything
wrapped up in a neat little bow, “Night Moves” isn’t going to give you that. Much
like the rest of the film, the end leaves you to your own devices in order to
draw your own conclusions. As the group navigates through a variety of close
calls, whispered rumors and innuendo, and paranoia, the tension and atmosphere
starts to close in around them. You understand the point, and while parts of
the end work, others are forced.
“Night Moves” is a decent thriller with a unique,
interesting hook, but in the end it’s too procedural and removed in nature. Not
throwing in with one side or another avoids one set of problems, but creates
another. On their own, you don’t connect with the characters in any legitimate
way—their backstories are largely left in shadows—and you’re never fully emotionally
invested in the action. Too cold and calculated, it is difficult to root for or
against anyone, and there’s simply not enough substance to make “Night Moves”
stand out in a crowd.
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