Review of Night Moves (2014) by Ben R — 20 Dec 2014

I think, when it comes down to it, Night Moves was just a little slow for my tastes. Maybe it's because it's been labeled as a thriller, but I thought it'd be a little more, well, thrilling. I did somewhat expect a slower-moving drama, given the low budget, limited release, and general indie nature of the movie. But I was at least hoping it would really delve into the characters' psyches.

Instead, I felt like most of the scenes were pretty one-note. The acting helps, especially in the scene where the normally stoic Josh is starting to cry while he's on the phone with Harmon. But generally, it was a little too mopey for me, suggesting complexity once in a while but often just relying on Jesse Eisenberg staring broodingly into the distance or Dakota Fanning nervously stammering about not knowing what to do. Again, these characters were portrayed really well, but I wish there could've been something more, you know? It's also kind of weirdly structured, with the explosion happening maybe halfway through and much of the first half being a little pointless. Even if I preferred slow movies like this, I think I would've liked a little more of the thriller aspect - all of the suspenseful and tense scenes were much more captivating than the slow, contemplative scenes for me. That said, even though I thought the scene with Dena's death pretty tense and disturbing, it was a little unconvincing to me, since Josh already felt so much guilt about killing one person.

The movie was saved a little by the acting, the strong direction, and the beautiful cinematography. I loved the setting of the film, with all the forests and farmland. There were a lot of gorgeous shots of the scenery, and the film was shot in the perfect location to cultivate a lonely, isolated atmosphere. The overall visual look and the interesting tone with the film were perfect, which only makes it a little disappointing that so many of the psychology-based scenes were lackluster.

I also enjoyed how the characters were fairly normal people rather than really weird people you'd expect to be radical eco-terrorists (though Josh was that type of too-stoic character that bothers me a bit). I really like the idea of taking only one big event (the bombing, in this case) and basing all of the character arcs around its setup and aftermath, but I just think that setup and aftermath could've been more engaging.