Product: Moonstruck (1987)
Rating: 5.0
Music tells the story
A highlight of this wonderful movie is the way it uses the music from "La Boheme" to tell the story along with, and sometimes ahead of, the narration (which is the way Puccini uses his tunes in the opera). When Cher emerges from the Cinderella Beauty Salon after her makeover and gets an approving whistle from a couple of kids on the street, we hear a little bit from "Musetta's Waltz" in the second act -- a song sung by a born flirt. For many the opera's emotional high point is the love duet in the first act, when in a phrase of seven amazing notes Mimi and Rudolpho pledge the love of a lifetime. We hear the same music the instant Cher and Cage's eyes meet at the beginning of their date at the Met. "La Boheme" is sublime, almost perfect; and so is this movie.