MoonstruckLove can't be scheduled, planned, arranged, or even ordained; it's a primal force that makes its own rules, and our hearts are but the strings upon which it strums its song. Moonstruck is a romantic comedy about an Italian-American widow named Loretta Castorini (Cher), who views romance as an inconvenience. She is recently betrothed to a nice (if bland) man named Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), who has asked her to invite his brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), to their wedding. The full moon works its magic over Loretta; she sleeps with Ronny in a moment of passion, forcing her to choose between her cynical rationality and her rekindled flame of romance.
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Written by John Patrick Shanley and directed by Norman Jewison, Moonstruck captures a slice of life in the Italian-American community of New York City, from its dialogue to the set design. Loretta is a CPA who manages the finances of several businesses in her neighborhood, and has fostered a reputation as being reliable and sharp. Her parents--Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) and Rose (Olympia Dukakis)--have routines befitting an older, married couple, including listening to records at night or making breakfasts of oatmeal or toast with an egg fried in the middle. Johnny is a creature of habit, dining at the same restaurant near Loretta's house for twenty years; when he orders dessert to give him time to build up the nerve to propose to Loretta, she is taken aback by his break in protocol. These characters are on auto-pilot until that portentous moon fills the sky, spurring something deep within them that wakes them up from their hypnotic trance. Loretta has convinced herself (with her father's help) that her first husband died due to "bad luck". It was certainly bad luck to be hit by a bus, but she has blamed herself for the accident because she didn't do things "just so", like not getting married in a church. Loretta uses this as an excuse to keep her heart from being broken again and joins her parents as a creature of ritual. She compels Johnny to get down on his knees when he proposes, and to use his pinky ring as a surrogate engagement ring; Loretta treats the whole event with all of the warmth of a bank transaction. This isn't because Loretta has a heart of stone--it's just that she's shielding her heart from inevitable pain...and that's no kind of love at all. This changes with Ronny; she calls him--at Johnny's insistence--to come to the wedding and quell the "bad blood" between the brothers, and Ronny furiously hangs up on her. She calls him an animal, yet she goes down to the bakery where he works to meet him in person anyway. Loretta has no obligation to ensure that Ronny shows up to her wedding, but this lights a fuse inside her--she's been without any passion for at least the last seven years, since her husband was killed. Ronny has also built up defenses against romance; his erstwhile fiancee left him five years ago after he almost lost his hand in an accident. He blames Johnny for the accident--and subsequent heartbreak--even though it was due to nothing but his own carelessness. Ronny throws a tantrum when Loretta first meets him, because his brother has found love and he has not. He threatens to kill himself, slamming the doors of the brick ovens in the bakery where he works--the same ovens in which he shovels fuel, as though he were feeding the flames of self-pity for his own private Hell. While Loretta has shut down her heart out of pain, Ronny rolls around in his suffering and allows it to dominate his moods, aping the kind of anguish found in the plays of Tennessee Williams. Despite Ronny's behavior, Loretta tries to assuage the venom in his heart--first by an awkward (and ill-chosen) metaphor about Ronny being a "wolf" who gnawed his paw free to escape a loveless engagement, and then with whiskey. Ronny understands that she is deliberately trying to be nice to him; he is ashamed by his outburst, and falls in love with her and her mercy. When he kisses her--contrary to her protestations--she kisses him right back just as passionately.
Moonstruck purports that the amorous frenzy which grips Loretta, Ronny, and other characters comes from the full moon. Many love songs have been written about the moon--not least of which is Dean Martin's "That's Amore", which is featured prominently in the film. Beginning with Loretta, there is a magical warming of the hearts of the Castorini family and those beneath the moon's radiance. Loretta doesn't feel ashamed for cheating on Johnny when wakes up in the middle of the night to stare out at the full moon, covering her body with a blanket from the cold. It is the next morning--after the moon has faded--when she covers herself from shame, changing her clothing in Ronny's closet, and declaring that they can never see one another again. Ronny convinces her to come with him to the opera--his sole passion, other than Loretta--for one last magical night in her company. Loretta acts like she only acquiesces to avoid future embarrassment; yet she visits the aptly-named "Cinderella" beauty shop to have the premature gray removed from her hair and buys an elegant dress to wear to the opera before the "date", with no obligation to do this. The reasons are obvious; her newfound love for Ronny has brought her back from the dead--she feels the passion of a woman years younger. There is a lot of talk about age when it comes to romance in Moonstruck, mostly from Loretta's parents. Cosmo is a successful plumber who has been seeing a slightly younger woman named Mona (Anita Gillette) on the side--giving her charm bracelets and making out with her in his Cadillac. Despite his cautiousness, Rose knows that he is being unfaithful, and experiences a philosophical quandary about why men cheat. She witnesses a university professor named Perry (John Mahoney) have a glass of water thrown in his face--for the second time in the movie--by his much younger date, and invites him to join her for dinner. He takes this as an invitation for romance, but Rose's pities the foolish man and sees an opportunity to confirm her suspicions that men cheat because they are afraid of their own mortality. She declines Perry's insinuations that she wants to cheat on Cosmo by stating that she "knows who she is"; compare this to when her husband and daughter cross paths at the opera, and their transgressions are laid bare before one another. Loretta goes to confession after sleeping with Ronny, but her only penance is to recite the Rosary a couple of times; Moonstruck has already established the futility of rituals as a substitute for self-awareness. When the final congregation of the family--extended to include the Cammareri brothers--comes at the end, it is around the breakfast table, becoming the only kind of confession that matters; the Castorinis face their respective truths, and their hearts are set free.
Recommended for: Fans of a soul-searching romantic comedy that merges the verisimilitude of life in a New York City Italian-American community with the narrative sensibilities of a classic Italian opera--emphasized by selections from Puccini's "La bohème" played throughout Moonstruck.
Moonstruck purports that the amorous frenzy which grips Loretta, Ronny, and other characters comes from the full moon. Many love songs have been written about the moon--not least of which is Dean Martin's "That's Amore", which is featured prominently in the film. Beginning with Loretta, there is a magical warming of the hearts of the Castorini family and those beneath the moon's radiance. Loretta doesn't feel ashamed for cheating on Johnny when wakes up in the middle of the night to stare out at the full moon, covering her body with a blanket from the cold. It is the next morning--after the moon has faded--when she covers herself from shame, changing her clothing in Ronny's closet, and declaring that they can never see one another again. Ronny convinces her to come with him to the opera--his sole passion, other than Loretta--for one last magical night in her company. Loretta acts like she only acquiesces to avoid future embarrassment; yet she visits the aptly-named "Cinderella" beauty shop to have the premature gray removed from her hair and buys an elegant dress to wear to the opera before the "date", with no obligation to do this. The reasons are obvious; her newfound love for Ronny has brought her back from the dead--she feels the passion of a woman years younger. There is a lot of talk about age when it comes to romance in Moonstruck, mostly from Loretta's parents. Cosmo is a successful plumber who has been seeing a slightly younger woman named Mona (Anita Gillette) on the side--giving her charm bracelets and making out with her in his Cadillac. Despite his cautiousness, Rose knows that he is being unfaithful, and experiences a philosophical quandary about why men cheat. She witnesses a university professor named Perry (John Mahoney) have a glass of water thrown in his face--for the second time in the movie--by his much younger date, and invites him to join her for dinner. He takes this as an invitation for romance, but Rose's pities the foolish man and sees an opportunity to confirm her suspicions that men cheat because they are afraid of their own mortality. She declines Perry's insinuations that she wants to cheat on Cosmo by stating that she "knows who she is"; compare this to when her husband and daughter cross paths at the opera, and their transgressions are laid bare before one another. Loretta goes to confession after sleeping with Ronny, but her only penance is to recite the Rosary a couple of times; Moonstruck has already established the futility of rituals as a substitute for self-awareness. When the final congregation of the family--extended to include the Cammareri brothers--comes at the end, it is around the breakfast table, becoming the only kind of confession that matters; the Castorinis face their respective truths, and their hearts are set free.
Recommended for: Fans of a soul-searching romantic comedy that merges the verisimilitude of life in a New York City Italian-American community with the narrative sensibilities of a classic Italian opera--emphasized by selections from Puccini's "La bohème" played throughout Moonstruck.