MOONSTRUCK Review
In Norman Jewison’s delightfully eccentric MOONSTRUCK, the concept of love to our cast of characters is an idea that is equal parts revolting, magical, and unattainable — at least in love’s “pure” form: you know, the love that makes you break into song or dance or hold a stereo over your head as you blast Peter Frampton outside your crushes’ window. For Loretta Castorini (Cher), love might as well be a few inches away from being a curse. A widow of two years, and with her self-imposed era of youthfulness passing by, Loretta approaches love now with more or less a suspicious shrug, as exemplified in her lowkey acceptance of hand in marriage to superstitious mama’s boy Johnny Cammareri (a wonderfully whiny Danny Aiello), a nice guy sure, but maybe not the nice guy for Loretta. In Loretta’s head, marriage isn’t necessarily happily ever after, just an institution that may just block off love’s cruel hand forever. Maybe Loretta’s view of love is genetic as we also see her big shot plumber father (Vincent Gardenia) and her mother (the late Olympia Dukakis, splendid and deserving of her Oscar here) go through their own bouts of what love really means for two older people coming to a surprising tipping point in their 20-plus year relationship.
Indeed, despite the appearance of Cher dancing in front of a giant moon on its poster giving off the vibe of your typical rom-com, MOONSTRUCK is a surprisingly unique film filled with big characters who are just trying to figure out just what the hell love is. Operating like some kind of New York-influenced fable, Jewison and writer John Patrick Shanley bring a certain language and attitude to what is essentially a story of a middle aged woman finding love, which arrives in the form of Nicolas Cage’s rough and manic one-handed Ronny, younger brother of the aforementioned Johnny, who quickly sweeps Loretta off her feet and into his bed. As their affair and all its complications pile on, Jewison and Shanley impressively make the situation of infidelity funny and dramatically impactful as Shanley’s ear for charming dialogue enhances the everyday lives of Italian-Americans hanging out and arguing about the logistics (or lack thereof) of love. Every character here is honestly just a joy to be around, even if it takes some getting used to — looking at you Ronny, you genuinely unstable hunk of man you — but Shanley and the performers reciting his writings make these uneven moments breathe with life.
Honestly, MOONSTRUCK by far has one of the strongest ensembles I’ve seen with every single actor taking their character and adding heart and memorability, especially in regards to Gardenia and Dukakis’ parental roles, who in any other movie would be resigned to a fate of just shooting off Italian-American zingers but here get their own complicated plot line that beautifully touches on the concept of love and its uncertainness. While Gardenia is given more humor, which he ably (and grumpily) executes, it’s Dukakis who becomes the heart and soul here tethering herself and her family to the themes of trust and self-respect which are always great to have in any relationship, no matter how strained or out of the box they may be. Even as her paternal co-stars steal the show, credit must be given to Cher and Cage as well for their own solid performances, with Cher bringing her natural charisma and wit to pair nicely with Cage’s more frantic and romantic rebuttals. Their journey together feels slapdash but only because that’s a feature and not a bug as Loretta and Ronny’s affair only furthers the thesis of MOONSTRUCK’s complicated (yet funny) analysis of love. Even though their relationship is crafted on the back of infidelity — not that man-baby Johnny minds much as he’s more concerned with his “dying” mother overseas in Italy — Cher and Cage confidently reveal the genuine affection they have for one another, warts and all.
While it honestly took a bit for me to get adjusted to the film’s start and stop pacing, moving from Loretta to other characters throughout its runtime as they all dealt with love and all its uncertainties, the film still had a way in bringing me along its eccentric journey, wondering where all this would end up. Sure, having the benefit of great performances and characters helps but there would be moments where MOONSTRUCK felt like it was dragging its feet narratively a little too much — similar to its main character, coincidentally enough. Despite the general air of clever observance aimed at the rom-com genre itself, Jewison and his crew still have their film feeling lovably traditional in appearance and movement with lovely composed romantic saunters through various NYC locales accompanied by a welcoming Dick Hyman score. The end result is a rom-com that not only slyly acknowledges its predecessors and their noticeable tics but evolves them into something warm and memorable and all its own.
Exemplified in the film’s best scene, where Jewison shows each character during a lovely night of a full and cinematic moon, MOONSTRUCK is centers itself as a film willing to get lost in the magic idea of love while also laughing at and still celebrating that very same idea. It’s sweet, it’s funny, it’s charming, and yes, it’s pretty magical at its peak.
4/5
