Moonstruck is an 80s rom-com starring Cher, Nicholas Cage, Danny Aiello, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, and Feodor Chalipin, Jr. It was nominated for a shitload of Oscars back in the day, and has the distinction of being a movie I saw on a "date" when I was in...what, probably eighth grade?
Loretta (Cher) is a widow who's been seeing Johnny (Aiello) for a while. It's not a terribly passionate relationship, but they like each other OK. He proposes, she accepts, but he needs to go to Sicily to see his mother on her deathbed. He makes one request of her: Contact his estranged younger brother and invite him to the wedding. Loretta goes home to tell her mother Rose (Dukakis) and her father Cosmo (Gardenia) what's going on; they accept it, though they're not exactly happy about it.
Loretta meets Ronny (Cage), Johnny's brother, and learns that they're estranged because Ronny got his hand caught in machinery while talking to Johnny, and his fiancee left him shortly afterwards. This is by no means Johnny's fault, but Ronny is a melodramatic idiot. She and Ronny wind up getting drunk and sleeping together, whereupon Ronny decides he's in love with her. They wind up going to the opera and actually deciding they're in love, which of course is complicated.
Meanwhile, Cosmo is having an affair, and Rose knows it, but isn't sure what to do about it. This is all intercut with scenes of Loretta's grandfather (Chalipin Jr.) and her aunt and uncle (Julie Bovasso and Louis Guss, respectively), lots of talk about moons and love and so on.
So, Michelle really loves this movie. I'm...less of a fan. It's a great performance from Cher (better than Glenn Close for Fatal Attraction, who was also nominated that year? Eh), and it's light and funny and sweet. Where I get hung up, I think, is Cage - he's just such a loudmouth dork in this movie, and his complaint with his brother doesn't make any damn sense (and it could have worked with a better performance, but as it was I didn't buy it).
Overall, though, it's pretty good as rom-coms go, and it presents Loretta as the main character and having some agency, so that's pretty cool.
My Grade: B
Rewatch value: Medium
Next up: Mortal Kombat
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