Review of Night Moves

How far would you go to display your principles and show how much you really care about saving the planet?

Three acquaintances Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning) plan to get back at the system and those superficial types who can't live without their iPhones and the internet by blowing up a hydroelectric dam In Oregon State. Despite careful planning something goes wrong and an innocent camper is accidentally killed in the explosive political statement. Is this act of expressing your ideals worth the life of another human being?

Having agreed to go their separate ways with no contact until things blow over. One of the three begins to fall apart with the heavy weight of guilt hanging over them and breaks the silence between the others. Can they wait this out or does this lead to desperate measures to ensure their silence?

A lot of questions and I must admit the way I've written the synopsis might even have persuaded me to give this film a try. After all, it has a tried and tested experienced cast. Jesse Eisenberg was terrific in The Social Network and he showed a knack for dry humour in Zombieland, Peter Sarsgaard was recently seen in Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine and Dakota Fanning has been acting since she was an embryo. But alas the cast and the film get wrapped up in their own importance and what we (the audience) get is a very very slow build up to the fateful act of defiance with shots of Josh looking thoroughly bored and morose throughout . In fact you wouldn't want to spend a lot of time with any of these characters and you find it difficult to feel any empathy with them. Ok maybe you might feel a little sorry for Dakota Fanning’s character as she does have a cute naivety about her.

Overall the film covers the three P's, pretentious, predictable and err...pants! Apparently I don't understand the director but to me it was like a film student’s first attempt at making a thought provoking docudrama. There are long drawn out scenes where absolutely nothing happens and the build up to the act of terrorism is so tedious that I nearly dropped off a couple of times. If it wasn’t for the fact that the woman next to me was huffing and puffing at my indifference, I would have missed my train home.

The only time that the film showed a glimmer of something interesting was the discovery that this militant and extreme environmentalist statement got somebody killed in the process and the police seemed to be closing in with the cunning use of roadblocks.

Just as you are lulled into thinking that maybe this is leading up to something after all the next few scenes then drop back into the mundane with more thoughtful staring and moping with nothing actually happening. Unfortunately, you aren’t drawn in enough to care about any of the protagonists.
That’s 112 minutes or 1 hour 52 minutes of my life that I’ll never get back.

Foker On Film rates this 2 out of 5 stars

Not in cinemas until August  29, 2014