Moonstruck

From AwardAnnals

Reviews

Amazon.com

Remember the outfit Cher wore to the Oscars when she won an Academy Award for her performance in this 1987 film? Ay-yi-yi. The actress’ more retiring character in this infectious comedy leaps several psychological hurdles just giving her hair a permanent. But then the original screenplay by John Patrick Shanley (Joe Versus the Volcano) is a wonderful, gently satirical tale of an Italian-American family dealing with repression and dissatisfaction against a backdrop of cultural expectations. Cher is focused and funny as a widow who feels she should marry an older fellow (Danny Aiello), but then falls for his black-sheep brother (Nicolas Cage). Olympia Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia are perfect as her parents, and John Mahoney (of TV’s Frasier) has a memorable, small role as a middle-aged man on the make who gets a lecture from Dukakis’s character. Shanley’s dialogue is comically stylized in a way that makes one appreciate how much words can inform an actor’s performance. Taking its cues from him and director Norman Jewison (And Justice for All), the cast immerse themselves in a pool of hilariously operatic emotion. —Tom Keogh

Barnes and Noble

The 1987 hit Moonstruck, a modest romantic comedy that proved an unlikely Oscar powerhouse, has weathered the passage of time far better than most ‘80s films. The virtuoso performances certainly figure in the picture’s enduring appeal: Top-billed Cher and supporting player Olympia Dukakis both walked off with Oscars, while up-and-comer Nicolas Cage and character actor Danny Aiello also delivered hilarious turns. Cher truly shines as Loretta Castorini, a dour, superstitious, but attractive widow who accepts a marriage proposal from decent but unprepossessing Johnny Cammareri (Aiello). Resigned to a financially secure but passionless union, Loretta initially dismisses the immature advances of Johnny’s tempestuous younger brother, Ronny (Cage), but eventually comes to love him. Loretta’s feisty, plainspoken mother (Dukakis) has plenty to say about her daughter’s choices, and interference from her could throw the situation into chaos. Director Norman Jewison, working from an unusually trenchant script by John Patrick Shanley—who also won an Oscar—skillfully realizes the writer’s richly detailed, often subtle vignettes about working-class Italian-American families in New York City. The Loretta-Ronny romance evolves along decidedly unconventional lines, and the brothers’ rivalry is resolved touchingly, without resorting to crude comedic gimmicks or cheap melodramatic hokum. Sharply written, incisively directed, and beautifully acted, Moonstruck has earned its place among the screen’s classic comedies. Ed Hulse