One of the best films to debut in Toronto and play at the New York Film Festival, writer-director Oren Moverman’s “Time Out of Mind,” stars Richard Gere as a homeless man in New York. You can see vestiges of his rakish charm, sexy grin, and proper wardrobe. But now he has no money, has been kicked out of a friend’s vacated apartment, and seeks to reconcile with his estranged daughter (Jena Malone). This is a guy who made mistakes in his life. We learn more as Moverman’s probing hand-held cameras follow him around his peregrinations in New York within the real homeless population, sitting on park benches, sleeping in the men’s shelter at Bellevue and trying to navigate New York’s bureaucratic maze.
It’s a must-see and IFC has acquired it for release in 2015, when Gere’s naked, restrained performance will surely be a contender in the Best Actor race. Astonishingly, he has never been nominated, although he has four Golden Globe noms and one win (supporting actor, “Chicago”) to his credit. At this point the 2014 awards derby is well under way with a competitive field for the men, so this is the right move.
“IFC Films is all about the exciting permutations of modern cinema and I am delighted that ‘Time Out of Mind’ has come home to a distribution team that has heart, smarts and guts,” said Moverman, who nabbed an original screenplay Oscar nomination for “The Messenger,” which also boasted strong performances from Woody Harrelson, Ben Foster and Samantha Morton, as did his follow-up “Rampart,” with Harrelson and Robin Wright.
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