Moonstruck
A widowed Brooklyn book-keeper is torn between her fiancé and his brother.
Directed by
Norman Jewison
Genres
Comedy, Romance, Drama
Cast
Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, Danny Aiello, Julie Bovasso, John Mahoney, Louis Guss, Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Anita Gillette, Leonardo Cimino, Paula Trueman, Nada Despotovich, Joe Grifasi, Gina DeAngeles
DVD
This is probably my favorite movie of all time. Loretta Castorini, a Brooklyn bookkeeper in her late 30s whose husband died several years earlier in a bus accident, decides it’s time to get married again. So she accepts the proposal of a nice, middle-aged fellow named Johnny Cammareri. Loretta is convinced her first marriage was cursed because she and her husband had gotten married at City Hall; this time, she’s determined to do things right, even as she admits to her mother, Rose, that she’s not really in love with Johnny. (To which Rose replies: “Good. When you love them, they drive you crazy, ’cause they know they can.” Rose speaks from rueful experience; she suspects, with good reason, that her husband, Cosmo, is cheating on her.) Loretta is convinced that marrying Johnny is the safe and sure thing to do – until she meets his estranged younger brother Ronny, who tends the ovens in a neighborhood bakery. Loretta discovers that in startling contrast to the pleasant, mild-mannered Johnny, Ronny is moody and passionate; what follows are complications worthy of a comic opera.
‘Moonstruck’ is a love story. There is not one romance, there are at least three, but they all have to do with the same family. Loretta’s family. Loretta (Cher) is about to marry Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello). She doesn’t love him, but he is sweet and good man. When he leaves to visit his dying mother in Italy Loretta meets Johnny’s brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage). He and Johnny haven’t spoken each other in five years and Loretta wants to invite him to the wedding. Of course they fall instantly for each other.
How this story and love stories of Loretta’s parents and uncle and aunt develop is something you simply have to see for yourself. Every seen is a delight to watch, with Cher as the bright star in the middle of everything. She won and really deserved the Oscar that year. Cage is pretty good, and goofy as well, and Olympia Dukakis as Loretta’s mother and Vincent Gardenia as her father are terrific. This movie is funny, charming and therefore highly enjoyable.
Cher and Olympia Ducacus are outstanding in their parts. I don’t like Nicholas Cage, but even he was great in this movie.
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