Film critic-turned-filmmaker Godfrey Cheshire happens upon a blindingly obvious visual metaphor for family upheavals when a North Carolina plantation house is relocated as a strip mall nears. “Moving Midway,” the journey of that house and Cheshire’s discoveries about his family, is light on the visual legerdemain but rich in the talking and listening skills of the South. His earnest, cordial style is affecting throughout: the layers of family history uprooted by the move produce unexpected currents, especially the discovery of African-American descendants of their original owner’s previously unrevealed liaison with a slave. “Moving Midway” is eye-widening, eye-opening and fine. 98m. (Ray Pride)
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