“Night Moves” fails miserably with disappointing acting, boring plot

Warren Gordon
Staff Writer

Three radical environmentalists look to execute the protest of their lives: the explosion of a hydroelectric dam, in the most disappointing movie of the year, “Night Moves”.

Director Kelly Reichardt creates a film to illustrate how even people who have best interests in their ideas, cause pain in the world and in others lives. This film is vapid, contains no humor, and lacks character emotion. Reichardt uses a very picturesque setting, a talented yet disappointing cast, and a very bland storyline, to create a horrendous film.

In this film, an insane farmer, Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), a deceivingly innocent tagalong, Dena (Dakota Fanning), and the leader of the heist, Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), all come to together to execute the most influential decision in their lives. The first half of Reichardt’s dull narrative overshadows the planning of the event; while the second half details the predictable fallout of their plan.

Reichardt begins the film with no plot progression whatsoever, containing scenes that are completely irrelevant from the movie as a whole. With the bore spreading throughout the audience, leaving the viewers struggling to stay awake.

The one pleasing aspect of this film is that the scenery is beautiful and truly captures the nature in the river’s surroundings. With a flowing river, greenery everywhere, and innocent people boating in the lake, the setting uplifts the film. However the terrible plot of the film still overshadows this one positive aspect..

Eisenberg starred in outstanding movies like “Now You See me” and “Zombieland”, but his bland acting in this film brings down his reputation in many viewers eyes. In this film he has no emotion and consequently doesn’t grab the viewer’s attention like in his other fantastic flicks, making this film even harder to watch.

In the film, eco-terrorists try to destroy a damn, and throughout the film, the characters rarely use dialogue trying to create suspense as well as an interesting plot. When in reality, she is just putting the audience to sleep.

Overall, this film is a disappointment, as many viewers went into the theater expecting a riveting and entertaining plot, but find it hard to watch.

This film is rated R, and is showing in limited theaters.