MOONSTRUCK
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1988 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: A rich and endearing comedy about love
and life in New York City's Italian community. Cher gives
her best performance ever. Vincent Gardenia is a positive
joy to watch. MOONSTRUCK just barely edges out BROADCAST
NEWS as the best comedy of 1987. Anyone can enjoy this film
but it is a pleasure to see a film with subtlety, making it
clear it is aimed at adults. Rating: +2.
The children of the post-war baby boom are edging their way up around forty and it has been a while since filmmakers have targeted the forty-and- up crowd. Then the final months of 1987 saw two good comedies that did not taste of bubble gum. One was BROADCAST NEWS and the other, only now getting a wide release, is MOONSTRUCK. Norman Jewison, who is still on a career- long roll, directed this delightful and endearing comedy about many kinds of love.
MOONSTRUCK is set in a never-never land where the moon stays completely full three days in a row and everyone is Italian-American and good at heart. Loretta (played by Cher) is engaged to Johnny (played by Danny Aiello). But Johnny wants to hold off on the marriage for a month until his ailing mother in Sicily dies. He is going to Sicily to be by his mother but leaves a request that Loretta invite his brother Ronny (played by Nicholas Cage). If you can't figure out what kind of problems that can cause, you ought to hang it up. But the plot is not as important as the beautiful yet economical characterizations. Jewison has a talent like Louis Malle for creating a feeling that the viewer knows a character after just moments of screen time. In one scene a woman is telling Loretta about the fickleness of men. The woman tells her husband she sees a wolf in him. He responds that he can still see the girl he married in her. He has spoken one sentence on the screen and already he has won over the audience.
Jewison can charm magical performances from his actors. He did it in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and he does it here. I personally have never been fond of Cher as an actress but if this were the only film I had ever seen her in, I would anxiously be awaiting her next performance. Vincent Gardenia, on the other hand, is a good actor and he too turns in one of his best performances. And one more touch adding to the effect: Like THE KILLING FIELDS, A ROOM WITH A VIEW, FATAL ATTRACTION, and several other recent films, MOONSTRUCK makes good use of the transcendentally beautiful opera music of Giacomo Puccini. In this case, the film is filled with the music of LA BOHEME.
What can I say? This is a very good warm comedy for just about any audience. Rate it a high +2 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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