Jewels and Misfires at Toronto 2013: 'Philomena' and 'Night Moves'

Arrived here fresh from Venice, Philomena directed by Stephen Frears more than fulfills the buzz.  Frears has stumbled with such recent efforts as Cheri but in this searing story of the search for a lost adopted child -- and an indictment of aspects of Catholicism --he's again in top form.  As the "inciting incident" (in moviespeak), Martin (Steve Coogan), a world-weary political journalist, gets bounced from his job, then wooed by an editor interested in "human interest" stories, a genre for which Martin has only contempt.  Enter humble single mother and devout Catholic, Philomena (Judi Dench), who remains haunted by the disappearance of her little boy, literally sold to American buyers by the Sisters in an Irish abbey for wayward -- i.e. pregnant -- girls.  The consuming joint search of Martin and Philomena for a boy swallowed by cruel circumstance becomes the very human interest story Martin has so disdained.

The subject of pregnant Irish girls forced into slave labor in church-run homes is familiar from Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters.   But in Frears's telling, the subject remains fresh due to a brilliant screenplay which explores the dynamic bond of cynical Martin and pious Philomena, surprising at every turn.  While the theme of a mother's disappeared child is in itself heart-breaking, Frears makes the story especially haunting when the child's destiny as a successful lawyer--and beyond--is finally uncovered.  But given Frears's social concerns, this is no mere weeper.  In exposing the machinations and concealments the Irish Sisters use to separate mother and child, he mounts a scathing critique of righteous villainy under the guise of saintliness.  The story's complex resolution, which I will not reveal, is deeply satisfying.

Less successful is Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves. The film is particularly frustrating because so many elements are in place: a splendid cast; the director's trademark feeling for Oregon's beauty, and, best of all, a relatively high-concept plot after such past meanderings short on story as Old Joy.

Aptly titled, Night Moves unfurls mainly in darkness and at night, which makes the daylight scenes on an Oregon farming cooperative all the more striking.  The film centers on a trio of eco idealists whose efforts to halt the industrial despoilment of the planet turn to violent acts.  Jesse Eisenberg is the kingpin of a plot to blow up a dam, assisted by rich girl Dakota Fanning and ex-marine Peter Sarsgaard.  The actors are all superb, the naturalness of their dialogue vintage Reichardt.   Eisenberg is intensely private and a coil of angry energy, though you never forget you're watching this particular actor rather than his character; Fanning a revelation as a confident, impassive cohort who cracks when the scheme goes wrong; and Sarsgaard magnetic and inscrutable portraying the idealist as loose cannon.  As the trio implements their scheme we root for them--as we do for characters undertaking a difficult task.  Reichardt newly reveals her talent for suspense as the trio docks their dynamite-loaded boat at the dam before making their getaway in a canoe.  Then, along with the dam, the film implodes.  A finger-wagging morality lecture is added on about the dangers of idealistic violence.  Are we meant to conclude that extreme protest can bring only mayhem and madness?   Somehow Night Moves has shifted into Kathy Boudin/Weathermen terrain, dissipating  the power of its original vision.