MOVIE: Moonstruck
STARRING: Nicolas Cage, Cher, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia, John Mahoney
RELEASE DATE: December 18th, 1987
WHERE TO WATCH: VOD (HBOMax, Hulu, Amazon Prime)
By Justin Pomerville (2 Broke Geeks)
Moonstruck is a romantic comedy directed and co-produced by Norman Jewison, written by John Patrick Shanely, and has a great cast. It received 6 nominations at the 60th Academy Awards, with winning Best Original Screenplay, Cher winning Best Actress, ad Dukakis winning Best Supporting Actress.
Cher plays 37-year-old Loretta Castorini, who accepts the marriage proposal of her boyfriend, Johnny (played by Danny Aiello). Johnny immediately leaves for Italy to attend to his sick mother. Before leaving he asks Loretta to invite his estranged brother, Ronny (played by Cage) to the wedding. Ronny has a bad boy attitude that resents his brother’s good fortune. He blames Johnny for the loss of his girlfriend and literally a hand. In Johnny’s absence, Loretta and Ronny immediately (and I do mean immediately) go to bed with each other, and continues throughout the rest of the film, Loretta slowly realizes she’s falling in love with Ronny. As she is figuring out her situation, she finds the rest of her family suffering from similar problems.
Loretta (Cher) and Ronny (Nicolas Cage) in Moonstruck
The overall story is really good with the idea of love not being as black and white as we perceive it to be. Cher shines in this film, just falling into the role with ease. Cage is pretty reserved by Cage standards for the majority of the film. His introduction is where he really stands out. His whole monologue gives the whole story about his past. Cher and Cage play really well off each other, but I feel some of the dialogue is a bit choppy and rushed. The movie is 1 hour and 42 minutes, and it feels like it just flies by because of how they do a great job pacing the plot the film. It all felt natural, except for that first meet-cute of Cher and Cage. I place this movie in the middle of “OK” on the Nic Gauge.
