REVIEW - NIGHT MOVES

It takes three people, months of planning, a $10,000 second-hand boat and 500lbs of ammonium nitrate fertiliser to blow up one dam - one among twelve. It takes a rise in water level of 15 feet to kill one person. It takes the death of one person to destroy the lives of three. Kelly Reichardt has fashioned something of a cinematic oxymoron - a contemplative thriller, slow and static, and utterly engrossing. The detail with which she and Jon Raymond have imbued these characters is outstanding - they're not 'flawed' in the stupid, hokey sense of 'flawed' characters, instead they're thoroughly multi-faceted, and possessed of ambiguous attributes, such that they might each create a wholly different imprint on one viewer from the next, as real people do in real life. And much of this detail is never spoken of, never alluded to. It's simply expressed in the most minute, ephemeral moments of lucidity, as we discover yet another deeper truth behind Jesse Eisenberg's enigmatic expression. The net effect is one of benevolence, as Reichardt discloses so much, and also of respect, as the feeling remains that there's so much more as yet unearthed by our fickle minds, so much more to gain upon repeat viewings. What a gratifying experience, and that's even before one touches upon Night Moves' incredible achievements as thriller. The middle section of the film, in which environmentalists Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard (all excellent) effectuate their plot, one which will eventually prove a tad futile concerning their intentions, and more than a tad lethal, is as tremendously tense as any more complicated sequence from the most sophisticated suspense films. It's a perfectly tart cherry on top of a rich, and healthy cake from a true virtuoso filmmaker.