A Walk on the Moon

Plot synopsis:
Pearl Kantrowitz (Diane Lane) and her husband Marty (Liev Schreiber) are a lower middle class Jewish couple in New York City, where Marty is a television repairman. The movie begins with the couple and their family including their teenage daughter Alison (Anna Paquin) and young son Danny (Bobby Boriello) and Marty's mother Lillian (Tovah Feldshuh) going to their summer camp retreat, Dr. Folger's Bungalows, which they attend each summer.
Marty is forced to work away from home and hence, he only visits the family on weekends. This leaves Pearl feeling lonely and isolated. Pearl got pregnant at the age of 17 and she feels she missed enjoying her youth. With the absence of Marty, Pearl is attracted to the new "Blouse Man" Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen). Meanwhile, Alison is neglected and she experiences her first period, her first date, and her first kiss as she enters a relationship with another boy at the camp, Ross Epstein.
Marty is unable to visit the family because he has to repair more TV sets than usual, due to the impending moon landing. While the whole town celebrates the historic moonwalk, Pearl has sex with Walker. Marty's mother Lillian learns of the affair and tries to persuade Pearl to break it off. The affair continues when Marty cannot get up to visit on the weekend because of the traffic jam caused by the Woodstock festival, which is within walking distance of the bungalow colony. Pearl goes to the festival, and unbeknownst to her, Alison goes as well with Ross and her friends despite her mother previously forbidding it. Alison becomes upset after seeing Pearl and Walker carousing while on LSD.
Marty learns of the affair and confronts Pearl while Alison confronts her mother in an emotional scene. Pearl is forced to deal with her love of her family and her conflicting yearning for marital freedom.
Pearl finally makes her decision to stay with Marty and tells Walker she cannot go away with him. Walker says he understands. The final scene shows Pearl and Marty dancing together, first to Dean Martin's "When You're Smiling" and then to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", after Marty changes the station.

Tags: anti war

Review:
Listen to the lyrics in this movie...apply them to how Pearl, Diane Lane's character is feeling...
Set in upstate New York in the summer of '69 the movie focuses on the choices and the resulting consequences made by a young woman who feels trapped in her role as wife and mother.
A WALK ON THE MOON as written by Pamela Gray ("Music of the Heart") and directed by actor Tony Goldman conjures up more atmosphere for the year 1969 than any film to date.
It is all faithfully created here as the background for a lovely little sentimental tale about family and fidelity.The Kantrowitz family - Pearl (Diane Lane), Marty (Liev Schreiber), Alison (Anna Paquin), Daniel (Bobby Boriello) and Marty's mother Lilian (Tovah Feldshuh) - are spending their usual summer away form New York in a Catskill settlement bungalow along with other Jewish families of the same ilk.
A hippie blouse salesman Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen) peddles his wares to the settlement and casually but inevitably Pearl feels an attraction to Walker, the man of adventure who represents all the lost dreams of becoming a mother and wife at the too early age of 17.
This crisis event affects the family's unity and the way Pearl faces her moment of indiscretion with Marty and her children builds to a terrific climax.Diane Lane, Viggo Mortenson, Liev Schreiber and Tovah Feldshuh completely inhabit these simple characters and pull us into accepting all aspects of the predicament of this family crisis.
As others have said in this forum, the main point at the end of the movie is that she was misunderstood by a caring husband, her needs weren't satisfied (we never mention his), and ulimately he'll have to forsake his matured take on life if he's ever going to have his wife back.It was the equivalent of watching Dharma and Greg with explicit adultery, where once again the responsible spouse has to pick up the pieces and try to understand their act-before-thinking partner.
...But forget about the moon thing for a moment and let's get back to the late 60's Earth.Summary: Pearl and her husband Marty take their family on a vacation in the summer of 1969 near Woodstock where all their friends are too, but Marty can only stay on the weekends because he has a job repairing TV sets, which takes up most of his time, especially because people want to see the walk on the moon.
I also felt sorry for Marty, who was subjected to his wife's affair, and for the both of them I thought it was sad to see how 2 people's lives were destroyed over a mistake of not using protection which lead to the kids and their dreams left shattered, but I do think that both of them were lucky to get that sort of a wake up call in their lives and yet they still found a way to work things out.I rate this 8/10.
Tovah Feldshuh as Lillian is excellent, she realizes something is amiss with Pearl and lets her son know, calling him in Brooklyn.The Moon walk itself is secondary to the actual story of America in the turbulent 1960's, Woodstock, and social unrest, but the story is not heavy handed.Nor is it a complete miss like the faint hearted "1969" film with Robert Downey Jr., which attempts to address the same time period in America, and misses the point.
Entirely.Pearl Kantrowitz, well portrayed by Diane Lane feels something is missing, she has married too young, and subsequently meets Walker Jerome, a hippie who is known as the "Blouse man" (announced over the intercom by Julie Kavner's unmistakable voice ), when he brings his bus of clothing and jewelry to the camp site.
Liev Schreiber as Marty Kantrowitz is sympathetic and funny, attempting to dance to Jimi Hendrix at the end of the film.The story is memorable without cheap sentiment, and a rare thing we see from Hollywood deserves praise.
Diane Lane stars as a wife and mother who turns to the "blouse man" for affection when her husband can't get out of the city and spend any time with his family.
Anna Paquin plays her teenage daughter who comes into her own during this time and needs her mother's emotional stability, which isn't there.The first thing I ask myself is the reality behind this film.
It's a nice film based on a time when things were a little simpler, but I don't think the director gave very much opportunity for any of the stars to "give it their all," especially co-star Viggo Mortensen.
The movie is really about the cultural clash when a young couple trying to live out the 1950's ideal realize that time has passed and they adopt to the new world of personal growth, peace, Moon landings and Woodstock Festivals.
The love scenes were incredibly truthful and believable, and I just thought this movie was absolutely flawless in it's portrayal of what would have really happened between "Marty" and "Pearl".
I thought Diane Lane was awesome, as well as the understated acting feel of the beautiful and beyond sexy, Viggo Mortensen.
Diane Lane stars as Pearl Kantrowitz, a thirty-one year old mother of two, the oldest of whom, Alison (Anna Paquin), is fourteen; her husband, Marty (Liev Schreiber), is a square shooter who loves his wife and family and provides for them by working long hours in a shop repairing television sets.
It's the summer of 69, and while on the family's extended vacation-- during which Marty must return to work for the week-- Pearl falls into discontent, and with Woodstock about to happen a mere stone's throw from the campground/resort at which they are staying, she soon succumbs to the siren's song of the 60s:  The inhibition, freedom and free love-- all of which have been denied her since giving birth to her daughter at age seventeen.
Perhaps it's because, though there is much about Pearl with which to identify, her story is just too familiar; her situation is far from being unique, and she has a decent, upper middle-class life, with a loving husband and two great kids.
The supporting cast includes Viggo Mortensen as Walker Jerome, the traveling salesman with whom Pearl attempts to reconcile her lost youth; Tovah Feldshuh (Lilian Kantrowitz); Bobby Boriello (Daniel); Stewart Bick (Neil); Jess Platt (Herb); Star Jasper (Rhoda) and Julie Kavner (Voice of the Social Director).
There are some poignant moments in Goldwyn's film, and it does generate a certain sense of loss and longing;  but overall, `A Walk On the Moon' is at best a momentary diversion that comes across like a finger painting on an impressionist's canvas.
Any movie that portrays the hard-working responsible husband as the person who has to change because of bored, cheating wife is an obvious result of 8 years of the Clinton era.It's little wonder that this movie was written by a woman..
I missed a few seconds of the title credits so had no idea Viggo Mortensen starred in it and thought possibly it might be a cheap TVM , certainly the opening with the mawkish Pearl and Marty taking their kids to a Summer camp has that sort of made for TV feel though the brightly lit ( Too brightly lit ) cinematography seemed to suggest this was a cinematic film and it wasn`t until the appearence of Viggo Mortensen as hippy guy Walker that I realised this was a cinema release , after all someone of Mortensen`s stature wouldn`t star in a TVM , I mean that`s like a legend like Robert DeNiro appearing in a straight to video film .
Mind you a lot of people took LSD in those days so I guess that explains itI feel the major problem of A WALK ON THE MOON comes down to the fact it`s a romantic drama at heart ( Just like you`d expect in a TVM ) with several cloying coming of age scenes so why include a fairly explicit sex scene ?
I say possibly because the movie also seems to aim at a teeenage market with the coming of age scenes and those teenagers will probably be bored with the historical and social context of man walking on the moon and Woodstock .
At no time did I ever feel sympathy for Diane Lane or Anna Paquin in their troublesome middle-class care free life, nor did I feel for the emasculated Liev Shrieber.
After two children, Pearl, who appears to be sexy and with a high libido is ready for some extra marital fun.That is the basic premise for the film, which becomes a soap opera when the young daughter, Alison, decides to play hooky and go to the Woodstock festival nearby where, horror of horrors, she witnesses her own mom making out with the blouse salesman!
Well, stay tuned for the grand finale when all the parties are happily reunited by the little son's bedside when he is stung by wasps and the salesman comes to apply some home remedy, and daddy is called from the city, after knowing about Pearl's betrayal with the younger stud.Poor Diane Lane, she went to make "Unfaithful" later on, which is the upscale version of this dud.
Anna Paquin plays the rebellious Alison and Tovah Feldshuh is the unhappy Nana, who would like to have stayed in the city watching her soap operas instead of witnessing first hand one that is playing in her own backyard!Watch it at your risk, or pop the DVD in the telly when you have a fun crowd at home and you really want to have a laugh, or two dishing the film..
The second fatal flaw is the casting, Diane Lane just didn't work for me here, and Viggo Mortensen is not the right man for the job, believe me.
If you've never in your life wanted to walk out on a film, give this one 35-40 minutes, the only thing worth staying for is Anna Paquin, if you can stomach the fact that you'll find your mind drifting to whether or not you took out the garbage before you left home, which is probably where you should have stayed in the first place if you're off to the movies to see this one.
These excellent performances are complemented by an outstanding ensemble cast consisting of the mother-in-law, the two children and Pearl's lover,What could have been a syrupy, predictable situation involving the stereotyped bored housewife is beautifully rendered with Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon in 1969 as a backdrop for Pearl's(Lane)emotional and spiritual crisis.
If this was the first movie where a woman felt trapped by her times (allegedly) and decides to explore what else is out there, we might forgive the director/writer for skimping on some details - but if you're telling the 2-millionth version of this cliche, please let us understand why she decided to make this decision.Especially when you decide to make the husband a good guy who has to work long hours to support his family (on screen - when he's not with them, he's shown working) - we don't gain much sympathy for the woman.
And it's pleasures are very much in the detail, not just in the summing up of the seismic changes happening in American society at the time but in the smaller day-to-day things that affect the nuclear family at the centre.Here it benefits considerably from a quartet of superb performances from Diane Lane and Liev Schreiber as the couple whose marriage (in haste and with regrets on both sides) could so easily end on the rocks, from Anna Paquin as their daughter in the throes of growing up and from Tovah Feldshuh as the Jewish mother-in-law with a gift for observation bordering on second sight.
The posters for "A Walk on the Moon" show Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, two attractively talented people working in the movies today, lying in a grassy field, arms around each other, hinting at a deep romance and longing for each other.
Lane is going through the motions of her up-down life, when she starts an affair with a local blouse salesman (Mortensen) and, as you would expect, things start to come crashing down.The movie has good intentions; to deny that would be foolish.
They have two sex scenes together, the second one more ludicrous than the first, and just as lacking in eroticism.The best performance in the movie is by the underrated Liev Schreiber, as Lane's husband.
And as I was watching him act in this picture, I wasn't thinking about his character or what he must have been thinking during the inevitable discovery-of-betrayal scene (I don't think anybody walking in will not see this from a mile away) but instead of what a great actor like him was doing in a picture this limp.
These include their young daughter's emerging sexuality, how the father's workaholic absenteeism contributes to his wife having an affair with a goyisher traveling salesman, incidently related to the historic even of "Man's first walk on the moon," which becomes a kind of metaphor on the theme of "realizing the impossible dream."  While no doubt with a different ambition, the "Woodstock" mentality is presented in all its banality, hedonism, tribalism, abandonment and irrationality, as unintentionally observed through the experience of both mother and daughter.
As for the ending, it isn't what I expected and probably wouldn't happen in real life but still saves the movie from an all out depressing story and delivers some hope.
In the movie, every time the husband leaves, she sneaks off to have a full blown steamy roll-around with the new hot guy in her life, guilty-knowing (but not much caring) what she's doing to her family.
If I found myself watching a movie of a summer camp full of people who were all, say, Catholics, I would be compelled to wonder what the reason the screenwriter had in mind: This question is never answered in A Walk On The Moon.
I have to admit that my first reason for watching this film was the presence of the gorgeous Viggo Mortensen, but I thoroughly enjoyed all the performances, especially (as many others have noted) Anna Paquin, who was flawless at playing that "difficult" age.
But what is the cost to her and her family...A well made, lovingly crafted and sexy film with great period details and exceptional performances, especially DIANE LANE who was to tread similar ground in the sexy infidelity thriller Unfaithful..
Liev Schreiber just gets better and better,  Viggo Mortensen chooses a 'less is more' posture that works great and Diane Lane, always spectacular, just shines in every scene..
The film's great saving grace, however, is sharp performances throughout from Liev Schreiber, Diane Lane, Tovah Feldshuh, Viggo Mortenson, and Anna Pacquin..
Well after having watched this, and heard some great Janis Joplin and Woodstock tunes, I checked up dates on the Moonlanding (1967) and Woodstock (1969) and I also checked up Janis Joplins death date for good measure (1970), but it just seems to me that the event of the landing and the summer of love Concert (Woodstock) did not happen in the same summer as it seems to be depicted here, with the Pearl character leaving the camp and joining the "blouse man" at Woodstock, and isn't that Anna Paquin playing her daughter, a good bit of casting she is excellent.
Also the man playing the husband who's name I can never remember is a good actor, and the Bubbe who is the tarot card reader who has premonition's was an excellent lady in the part she played, all of this film and many on the sixties reall interest me i was born in '65 and pretty much raised in the Wonder Years and Brady Bunch era so a good movie can be very entertaining to say the least Like Now and Later was with Rosie Odonnel.
The film takes place in 1969, a time where many, including his character wife, Pearl, played by Diane Lane, had a child at a young age.
Liev Schreiber, Diane Lane, Tovah Feldshuh, and Viggo Mortensen all score high on the relative to Anna Paquin acting ability chart.
Diane and family vacation at Catskills resort in the late 60's, Lane the satisfied wife and mother -- until she runs into free-spirit blouse salesman Mortensen.
Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen have done movies lately, but I believe that Anna Pacquin, Liev Shrieber and especially Joe Perrino are extremely underrated.
NO, not that every blouse man will look, sound and seduce like Mortensen who is almost a diety physically and mentally at the art of seduction in this film, but that a housewife who married very young could be easily seduced to "test the waters."Pearl's performance hit un-nervingly close to home, as did the nice-guy husband.
The movie is about Diane Lane whom with her family including her husband and his mom.
It's a story about a young mother (Diane Lane), and her family in the late 60's Woodstock era.
The main problem with it was that all the characters were TOO nice, TOO understanding.Good performances all around, and anyone who can take his eyes off Diane Lane likely needs some kind of laser surgery..
The nicest thing about this film is that you like everyone, and at the end, the Bubby, husband, son and daughter all come to understand the attraction of "The Blouse Man"..
Paquin and Schreiber are the best, Diane Lane is good, while Viggo Mortensen is good looking but shallow as the blouse man.Grade: B.
The love affair between a bored, sexually frustrated housewife and a charming travelling salesman who takes her on her own walk on the  moon is moving and always believable.I was sad at the end for the character portrayed by Diane Lane (who is outstanding in the part) - but left hopeful too that things could change even in the most unlikely situation.
I love Liev Schreiber and Viggo Mortensen, and they're really bringing the best to this movie.