So, after Men, I figured I needed something that was the exact opposite of that, especially if I go see the new David Cronenberg movie this weekend. So, what is the opposite of a movie where a traumatized widow goes on a trip to the countryside and finds herself hassled by various volatile men? How about Moonstruck where a young, maybe traumatized widow meets and finds love with a volatile man? Also, it’s set in a city. That sounds close enough.
Besides, for all that the movie has a good-sized Italian-American cast, it was Cher and Olympia Dukakis who got Oscars for it. Draw your own conclusions.
Loretta Castorini (Cher) is a thirtysomething widow. Her late husband died in an accident, and Loretta believes it may have happened because she didn’t have a big, fancy traditional wedding like a good Italian American woman should. She still lives with her mother Rose (Dukakis), father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia), grandfather Grandpa (Feodor Chaliapin Jr.), and Grandpa’s many dogs. She has a romantic relationship going with Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), and when he proposes, Loretta accepts but isn’t all that enthused about it. She likes Johnny just fine, but she doesn’t really love him. She just thinks, provided she gets the big church wedding, that this may be her last chance.
However, Johnny needs to leave for Sicily more or less immediately to look after his dying mother. Before he goes, he asks Loretta to do him a favor: make sure his brother Ronny (Nicholas Cage) comes to the wedding. The two brothers had a falling out, mostly on Ronny’s side from the sounds of things. When Loretta meets Ronny at the bakery where he works, it comes out that he, also unlucky in love, lost a hand to a machine there and blames Johnny. However, Loretta’s efforts to reconcile Ronny to at least coming to the wedding go in a different direction when the two fall into bed together. Johnny is safe, but Ronny has passions, and he soon extends them to Loretta. She may reciprocate, but she is engaged to his brother, a rather pathetic man in many ways. Can these two works things out?
This one was a lot of fun, even if it plays up the idea that Italians are really superstitious in a lot of ways. Do they really believe in luck and curses and the like? Well, maybe. Characters often can go either way, but it is clear that enough of them believe in such things to affect their lives. For example, the moon itself perhaps influences the different characters into finding love, even if that means an extramarital affair for Cosmo while Rose keeps asking various men why men chase after women. But this is a romantic comedy. Rose and Cosmo will reconcile and something will happen that will allow Loretta and Ronny to get married without hurting Johnny too much.
But something about Cage really struck me here. As I have said about other early Cage movies, including the one that got him an Oscar, his reputation as a somewhat crazy guy hadn’t been established yet, and he can give some really good performances when he needs or wants to. And yeah, Ronny is a bit over-the-top here, a passionate man that can explode like a volcano but never comes across as all that dangerous, but this is a movie where that sort of performance actually fits in. However, there was a smoldering intensity to the guy that I don’t think I see too often these days as he looks more hangdog than anything else. I like Cage and have loved many of his movies, but there was just something about his work here that struck me and reminded me why he’s still getting a lot of work today. Basically, there aren’t any bad performances here, but Cage just stood out for me. That said, this still isn’t my genre-of-choice, so maybe remember that it is still a romantic comedy, and your enjoyment of it may depend heavily on your enjoyment of the genre and how you feel about the way the movie treats Italian culture.
Grade: B+
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