Product: Moonstruck (1987)
Rating: 5.0
The most magical of all romantic comedies
There are a very few films that create their own special, magical world--creating a heightened, poetic sense of whimsical reality--and sustain belief in that world from beginnng to end. Norman Jewison's Moonstruck, based on the superb screenplay of John Patrick Shanley, is one of those films. Everything about this movie--from the casting to the dialogue to the mesmerizing imagery of La Bella Luna--is exactly, perfectly right, and persuades you that to be an Italian in New York is the most wonderful thing in the world. It's heartbreaking to see Cher in her current incarnation as a worldwide freak show, after her great (and deservedly Oscar-winning) performance in this film. But she also deserves credit for insisting on Nicolas Cage as her leading man in Moonstruck, at a time when Cage seemed like something of a freak show himself. Cher deserves our thanks, for Cage and Ronny Cammareri were a perfect marriage of actor and role. He and Cher have chemistry by the truckload, and it is impossible to imagine any other actors in the roles of Loretta and Ronny. There is also the perfect casting of Olympia Dukakis, who looks absolutely like Cher's mom and has what may be the best comic entrance line in the history of the movies ("Who's dead?"). Vincent Gardenia, John Mahoney, Danny Aiello, Feodor Chaliapin, Louis Guss, Julie Bovasso, Anita Gillette--the litany of exquisite comic performances in "Moonstruck" goes on and on. Seeing this movie again after a long time, it's a bit of a shock to see how death-obsessed the film is--from the answer to Dukakis' question about why men chase women ("I think it's because they fear death") to the incidental but deliberately placed appearance of a bus (Loretta's first husband was killed by one). Yet the death imagery mixes well with the movie's themes of passionate romantic love and family loyalty, reminding us to gather our rosebuds while we may. Moonstruck is one of those movies you can see again and again without ever getting tired of it. Just seeing it makes the whole world seem--to borrow a line from John Mahoney's character--"as bright and full of promise as moonlight in a martini."