Desperate Lives

A classic and a new release are double-featured:

NIGHT MOVES (B) - Indie rambler Kelly Reichardt -- director of a trio of wonderful films, "Old Joy," "Wendy and Lucy" and "Meek's Cutoff" -- tries her hand at a noir thriller with mixed results. The main problem is that she has taken two stories and awkwardly spliced them together in the middle.

Working with a big-name (for her) cast -- Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard and Dakota Fanning -- Reichardt slowly spins the story of three off-the-grid environmentalists who decide to bomb a damn in Oregon. The first half of the film involves their preparation for the task; the second half examines the repercussions from that attempt. The shift in tone is quite a jolt, and the experiment doesn't quite work.

Reichardt takes her damn sweet time in the first half, introducing us to the loosely affiliated trio. We eventually settle into a rural millennial utopia, and the build-up to the big event is expertly rendered.

Up to that point, Eisenberg hammer on one note -- a classic Ethan Hawke slow burn, sporting the goatee and the scowl -- which threatens to drag the drama down. It's only in the second half, when his anger and fear leak out of him, that the first-half performance makes sense. Fanning struggles a bit, squeezed by her intense co-stars. Sarsgaard is always compelling, and here he barely has to try -- a tossed-off comment and a narrow glare speak volumes; even heard only by phone in the second half, he still overwhelms Eisenberg. He certainly is missed, though, after the midpoint. Reichardt leans way too hard on Eisenberg, and the strain shows.

Reichardt initially evokes the stunning imagery of her beloved Northwest, but she falls back on visual tropes of a thriller, such as holding a shot on a door to make us wonder what's on the other side, and horror cliches like the frightened woman's door that is mysteriously ajar.

There's no denying that the second half -- including a twist that is more disappointing than shocking -- doesn't quite deliver. It's a rare misstep for a brilliant writer and director.

UMBERTO D (1952) (A-minus) - Italian legend Vittorio De Sica assembles an amateur cast for a heartbreaking drama about an old man's slide into relevance in the modern postwar world.

We're introduced to Umberto (Carlo Battisti) to the strains of workers marching through the streets. He's a pensioner who can't catch up on his debts, principally back-rent to his harsh landlady for the room he rents in her ant-infested building. (She tends to rent his room out to couples by the hour while he's out.) He is comforted by the friendly house maid, Maria (Maria Pia Casilio), who confides her pregnancy to him (not sure which of the men she's dating is the father) and helps him run out the clock until his hoped-for pension check might show up to bail him out by the end of the month. He also has his faithful and talented companion, his dog Flike (an obvious inspiration for Uggie in "The Artist").

Umberto fakes an illness to get admitted to a hospital to kill time. When he returns after a few days, his room is under construction. Gradually, desperation creeps in to poor Umberto. De Sica masterfully builds the tension as he lends a gritty documentary feel to comic bits that recall Chaplin and the Marx Brothers. A scene at the dog pound (after Flike has run away) is harrowing.

Umberto starts selling off his possessions, but he still comes up short. His dignity draining away, he seriously considers begging for handouts. (In a cute bit, Flike shows that he's game to help out.) Like a frog in a pot of water brought to a slow boil, the viewer eventually realizes that a somewhat whimsical story has grown disturbingly dark. Umberto is seriously depressed, with nothing to lose.

This is a sharp observation of society's penchant for shoving the old folks aside. But never underestimate the life-affirming qualities of the love of a good dog.

BONUS TRACK
The trailer for "Night Moves":