Moonstruck [PG]

Widowed and ‘unlucky in love’ Loretta says “yes” to the marriage proposal of safe, reliable, albeit childish and dull, Johnny. They set the wedding date for exactly one month from that night and the next day, Johnny flies to Sicily to the deathbed of his ailing mother. Before he leaves, he asks Loretta to contact his estranged brother, Ronny, and invite him to the wedding. But when Loretta meets Ronny, the two fall in love. Meanwhile, there are romantic complications and resurrections happening all over Manhattan without any answer as to why love is in the air…maybe it’s because the moon is so big and perfect. 

This is a wonderfully fresh and original romance without all the clichéd romanticisms. As well as being a beautiful tribute to the Italian-American family, Moonstruck touches on pretty much all romantic themes, complications, and resolutions, making it one of the most memorable and impressionable romantic movies in cinematic history. 

Widowed and ‘unlucky in love’ Loretta says “yes” to the marriage proposal of safe, reliable, albeit childish and dull, Johnny. They set the wedding date for exactly one month from that night and the next day, Johnny flies to Sicily to the deathbed of his ailing mother. Before he leaves, he asks Loretta to contact his estranged brother, Ronny, and invite him to the wedding. But when Loretta meets Ronny, the two fall in love. Meanwhile, there are romantic complications and resurrections happening all over Manhattan without any answer as to why love is in the air…maybe it’s because the moon is so big and perfect. 

John Patrick Shanley’s Academy Award-winning screenplay delivers a most beautiful and slightly operatic platter of romantic delicacies. We have the central complicated love triangle that grips Loretta, Johnny, and Ronny, and then running parallel to this we have the marriage dramas of a womanizing husband and the suspecting wife who doesn’t so much dwell on the wrong-doings of her husband, but merely asks the question “why do men chase women?” Rose, the wife and Loretta’s mother, is a most beautiful and refreshing character and her search for reason proves to be one of the two most romantic things in the entire film. Olympia Dukakis who plays Rose, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and it’s no wonder as to why when you watch her. 

The other most romantic thing about this movie is the ironic and operatic romance between Loretta and Ronny. Characterised, their tale is like that of Little Red Riding Hood: little girl who can play it safe still gives into the temptation offered by the wolf. Cher, as Loretta, won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her beautiful performance that was conflicted, witty, and completely calm and in control on the surface and then hugely brave and romantic underneath. Our own Little Red Riding Hood. Nicholas Cage, as Ronny, was the perfect wolf. Unlike the fable, he doesn’t sugar coat his words, he isn’t all that cunning or crafty; he merely tells it like it is, sometimes even yells it with a beautiful wealth of poetic words and reasoning. I love Nicholas Cage. 

Starring Vincent Gardenia, Danny Aiello, Julie Bovasso, John Mahoney, Louis Guss, and Feodor Chaliapin Jr., Moonstruck is a hugely romantic movie that can simply be summed up in one word: ‘bella’! Filled with drama, complications, resolutions, opera, comedy, and of course romance, I absolutely adored this movie! It succeeds in sending those romantic tingles all over the body and it’s no wonder that it’s considered to be one of cinema’s most classic romantic comedies! 

"When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore."