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Moonstruck
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| Moonstruck | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Norman Jewison |
| Written by | John Patrick Shanley |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | David Watkin |
| Edited by | Lou Lombardo |
| Music by | Dick Hyman |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by | MGM/UA Communications Co. |
Release date |
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Running time | 102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million[1] |
| Box office | $122.1 million |
Moonstruck is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Norman Jewison and written by John Patrick Shanley.[2] It stars Cher as a widowed Italian American woman who falls in love with her fiancé's hot-tempered, estranged younger brother, played by Nicolas Cage. The supporting cast includes Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, and Danny Aiello.
Moonstruck had a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 18, 1987, followed by a wide release on January 15, 1988, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[3] The film earned critical and commercial success. It received six nominations at the 60th Academy Awards, winning three for Best Actress (Cher), Best Supporting Actress (Dukakis), and Best Original Screenplay (Shanley).[4]
Plot
[edit]Italian-American widow Loretta Castorini works as a bookkeeper and lives in Brooklyn Heights with her parents Cosmo and Rose and her paternal grandfather. Loretta's boyfriend, Johnny Cammareri, proposes to her before leaving for Sicily to tend to his dying mother. Loretta accepts. She insists on following tradition as she believes failing to do so led to her first husband's sudden death after two years of marriage.
Johnny asks Loretta to invite his estranged younger brother Ronny to the wedding. Ronny and Johnny have not spoken in five years. Cosmo, who runs a successful plumbing business, dislikes Johnny and is reluctant to pay for a formal wedding. Rose is relieved that Loretta is not in love with Johnny. She warns that the men women love can hurt them the most.
Loretta visits Ronny at the bakery. Ronny refuses to attend the wedding. He blames Johnny for distracting him years ago and causing him to lose his hand in a bread slicer. Loretta is persistent and cooks Ronny a steak at his apartment. She explains that Ronny is like a wolf who gnaws off its own paw to escape a trap. The accident was not Johnny's fault. Ronny was simply escaping a bad relationship. Ronny reacts furiously and passionately, kissing Loretta. Ronny carries Loretta to his bed where they have sex.
Cosmo and Rose have a family dinner and wonder where Loretta is. Rose's brother Raymond remembers when Cosmo was courting his sister and a giant moon woke him up. He blamed Cosmo, because he thought he brought the moon to their house.
Loretta feels guilty about her affair. Ronny promises to never bother her again if she goes to the Met with him. Loretta goes to confession. She impulsively decides to get her hair done and buys an outfit for the opera.
At the Met, Giacomo Puccini's La bohème deeply moves Loretta. Meanwhile, Rose dines alone at a local restaurant. Loretta sees her father Cosmo with his mistress Mona. She confronts him, but he points out that she is with Johnny's brother. They agree to keep their encounter a secret.
Rose witnesses New York University professor Perry get dumped by one of his students. He joins her for dinner. After the opera, Ronny leads Loretta back to his apartment and desperately persuades her to ruin herself with him.
Perry walks Rose home, but she refuses his advances because she knows who she is. Johnny Cammareri surprises Rose at the house. She asks him why men cheat, and they surmise it must be a fear of death.
When Loretta returns home in the morning, she is distressed to learn Johnny is back. Ronny arrives, and Rose invites him inside. At breakfast, Rose demands Cosmo end his affair and go to confession. They reaffirm their love for each other.
Johnny arrives and explains he cannot marry Loretta because it would kill his mother. Loretta is furious and throws Johnny's ring at him. Ronny borrows it to ask Loretta to marry him. She agrees and everyone toasts their engagement.
Cast
[edit]- Cher as Loretta Castorini
- Nicolas Cage as Ronny Cammareri
- Olympia Dukakis as Rose Castorini
- Vincent Gardenia as Cosmo Castorini
- Danny Aiello as Mr. Johnny Cammareri
- Julie Bovasso as Rita Cappomagi[a]
- Louis Guss as Raymond Cappomagi[a]
- John Mahoney as Perry
- Feodor Chaliapin as Grandpa Castorini / Old Man
- Anita Gillette as Mona
- Leonardo Cimino as Felix
- Paula Trueman as Lucy
- Nada Despotovich as Chrissy
- Joe Grifasi as Shy Waiter
- Gina DeAngeles as Old Crone
- Robin Bartlett as Barbara
- Helen Hanft as Lotte
- David S. Howard as Irv
- Robert Weil as Bobo
- Patricia Magrini as Benjamin's Secretary
- Amy Aquino as Bonnie
Production
[edit]Sally Field admired John Patrick Shanley's work and invited him to lunch at the Russian Tea Room to discuss a collaboration. He wrote a screenplay for her that he called The Bride and the Wolf. Shanley promised Field it would earn her an Oscar nomination, but she had a hard time picturing herself as an Italian from Brooklyn. Because his plays were frequently compared to operas, Shanley started going to the Metropolitan Opera. He was particularly drawn to Giacomo Puccini's La bohème and wrote the character of Ronny as a bohemian.[5]: 160, 172f
The script made its way to Norman Jewison who loved it, but insisted on a name change because the title sounded like a horror film.[5] He got Shanley to cut out most of the dialogue and pitched it to Alan Ladd Jr. and John Goldwyn when they were in Canada for the 1986 Toronto film festival. Jewison's pitch included Cher in the lead role. Like Field, she also balked over the Brooklyn Italian nature of the role, given that she was neither.[6]
When Jewison pitched the role to Cher, she warned him that she could be difficult. He replied, "Are you any more difficult than Judy Garland?"[5]: 161 He also warned her that she would spend the rest of her life regretting turning down the role. He cast the rest of the roles as if the movie were an opera, "Loretta is the soprano. Rose is the alto, Johnny is the baritone, Ronnie the tenor, Cosmo the bass."[6]
Ronny Cammareri was the same age as Loretta Castorini in the script. Ray Liotta auditioned, but Jewison dismissed him as too young. Raul Julia, John Turturro, and Al Pacino were all considered for the role. It finally came down to Peter Gallagher and Nicolas Cage. The chemistry between Cher and Cage was obvious on the screen tests.[5]: 162f Cher admired the risk Cage took with his Gumby accent in Peggy Sue Got Married. While she liked Gallagher, she concluded, "Nicky was nuts, and 'nuts' is what we needed."[7]: 231
After the death of his cousin Gian-Carlo Coppola, Cage was at a low point and turning down work. He disliked the mainstream sensibility of Shanley's script. He was far more interested in accepting Vampire's Kiss, but his agent Ed Limato forbade it unless he agree to do Moonstruck. Ronny Cammareri's wooden hand was what ultimately hooked Cage on the role.[5]: 162–5 He wanted to replicate the moment in Fritz Lang's Metropolis when Rotwang holds up a robot hand that he invented.[8] Cage saw the character as analogous to the beast in Beauty and the Beast, and emulated Jean Marais' voice from Jean Cocteau's 1946 film until Jewison talked him out of it.[9]
Most of the filming took place in Toronto in early 1987.[5]: 176 Jewison described the final scene as the most difficult to film in his entire career.[4] Julie Bovasso was the production's dialect coach and helped Cher master a Brooklyn accent in a few weeks.[6] While filming the final scene, she urged Cage to speak louder and faster, prompting him to throw a chair.[10]
Cammareri Brothers Bakery was located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn.[11] Ronny and Loretta were scripted to meet upstairs, but when Jewison saw the coal ovens in the basement, he relocated the scene.[5]: 168f
The light of the giant moon was designed by cinematographer David Watkin, who clustered parabolic aluminized reflectors into giant fay lights that lit up Brooklyn.[6][12] Ronny's climactic speech after the opera was filmed in freezing temperatures. The script's vestigial verbosity called for Ronny to describe himself as red meat and his brother as milk and cookies. Cage had to be convinced to say the lines, which ended up being cut from the film. Shanley concluded that actors "know what fits in their mouth and what doesn’t."[5]: 170f
Jewison took the cast to see La bohème in order to get them in an operatic frame of mind.[13] Puccini's "O soave fanciulla" plays during Ronny and Loretta's love scene. The film includes eleven other cues from La bohème.[14] During the actual scene at the Metropolitan Opera, Cher and Cage were looking at an empty stage as a recording played and Jewison summarized the plot of Puccini's opera.[7]: 231
Puccini's music scored the opening of the film's original cut. Audiences at test screenings did not view the film as a comedy, and Jewison realized the operatic score was setting the wrong tone.[4] When the opening music was replaced with Dean Martin's "That's Amore", audiences laughed along to the entire movie.[5]: 173f
Reception
[edit]Box office
[edit]On its wide release, the film finished third at the US box office and spent 20 nonconsecutive weeks in the top 10 and finally grossed $80.6 million in the United States and Canada.[15] Internationally it grossed $41.5 million for a worldwide total of $122.1 million,[16] on a budget of $15 million.
Critical response
[edit]Moonstruck received critical acclaim upon release.[17] In The New Yorker, Pauline Kael called Moonstruck a "rose-tinted black comedy" that "could become a holiday perennial". She recognized Shanley's script as an "opera buffa in which the arias are the lines the characters deliver".[18] Roger Ebert, who later added the film among his "Great Movies" list, said: "Reviews of the movie tend to make it sound like a madcap ethnic comedy, and that it is. But there is something more here, a certain bittersweet yearning that comes across as ineffably romantic, and a certain magical quality".[19] Film historian Leonard Maltin gave the picture 4 out of 4 stars.[20]
Gene Siskel, writing for the Chicago Tribune, recommended "Moonstruck, which is being sold as a romance but actually is one of the funniest pictures to come out in quite some time. [...] You will not easily forget this incredibly robust family, created by writer John Patrick Shanley and directed by Norman Jewison, who makes a comeback with this uproarious film."[21] Time wrote, "John Patrick Shanley's witty, shapely script puts an octet of New Yorkers under a lunar-tuney spell one romantic night. Cher shines brightest of all."[22]
It appeared on both Siskel's and Ebert's Top 10 lists for 1987.[23] In 2018, Billboard ranked Cher's work the all-time greatest acting performance by a musician.[24]
Moonstruck scores 90% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 78 reviews.[25] It tallies 83/100 on Metacritic from 18 reviews.[26] The film's CinemaScore is an "A−".[27]
In an appraisal of Cage's work, Manohla Dargis wrote, "There’s something of Brando in the way Cage confronts Cher in Moonstruck (1987), wearing a soiled white t-shirt, radiating heartbreaking masculine pathos, his arms muscular, his shoulders rounded with disappointment. There’s something of Brando as well in the way Cage fully uses his body, now and then, to punishing effect."[28]
Another critic underscored the moral of the film, "Moonstruck does not really target Cosmo's philandering, or Ronny's anger at his brother, or Loretta's denial of her sexuality, so much as the fear, self-pity, or self-absorption that causes each of these characters to withdraw from the values the film associates with being alive. And in Moonstruck, it is men more than women who are especially vulnerable to such fear and misguided in their response to it."[29]
Accolades
[edit]Legacy
[edit]In 2001, Nicolas Cage's production company Saturn Films began work on a Moonstruck sequel called The Seven Fishes. The project fizzled out. John Patrick Shanley mused that if he wrote Moonstruck II it would be about Ronny trying to win Loretta back after their divorce.[5]: 179f .
In June 2008, AFI revealed its "Ten top Ten"—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Moonstruck was acknowledged as the eighth best film in the romantic comedy genre.[40][41] The film is also number 72 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies," and number 41 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs.
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
- 2000: AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – #41[42]
- 2002: AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions – #17[43]
- 2005: AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- Loretta Castorini: "Snap out of it!" – #96[44]
- 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10:
- #8 Romantic Comedy Film[45]
Influential film critic Roger Ebert entered the film to his "Great Movies" collection in June 2003.[46] In 2006, Writers Guild of America West ranked its screenplay 62nd in WGA’s list of 101 Greatest Screenplays.[47]
Home media
[edit]Moonstruck was released on VHS and LaserDisc in 1988 following its theatrical release. It was released on DVD in 1998. It was released on Blu-ray by MGM on February 15, 2011.[48] The Criterion Collection released a remastered Blu-ray on November 17, 2020.[49]
Soundtrack
[edit]| Song | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| That's Amore | Dean Martin | Harry Warren, Jack Brooks |
| Canzone Per Loretta/Addio, Mulberry Street | Jack Zaza (mandolin) | Dick Hyman |
| Mr. Moon | Dick Hyman | |
| It Must Be Him | Vikki Carr | Gilbert Bécaud, Mack David, Maurice Vidalin |
| Old Man Mazurka | Dominic Cortese (accordion) | Dick Hyman |
| Lament for Johnny's Mama | Dick Hyman | |
| Che gelida manina | Ed Bickert (guitar) | Giacomo Puccini |
| Donde lieta uscì | Renata Tebaldi | Giacomo Puccini |
| Canzone Per Loretta | Dick Hyman | |
| O soave fanciulla | Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Tebaldi | Giacomo Puccini |
| Musetta's Waltz | Moe Koffman (alto saxophone) | Giacomo Puccini |
| Musetta's Entrance | Nora Shulman (flute) | Giacomo Puccini |
| La bohème (instrumental excerpts) | Giacomo Puccini | |
| (In Loretta's Bedroom) Gettin' Ready | Moe Koffman (alto saxophone) | Dick Hyman |
| Brooklyn Heights Stroll | Dick Hyman | |
| Beautiful Signorina | Dick Hyman | |
| Moonglow | Eddie DeLange, Will Hudson, Irving Mills | |
| Canzone Per Loretta | Dominic Cortese (accordion) | Dick Hyman |
| Gioventù mia, tu non sei morta (La bohème, act 2) | Carlo Bergonzi, Cesare Siepi, Ettore Bastianini, Fernando Corena, Gianna D'Angelo, Renata Tebaldi, Renato Cesari | Giacomo Puccini |
Soundtrack references: [50][51]
Notes
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "Box Office Information for Moonstruck". TheWrap. Archived from the original on July 8, 2017. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
- ^ Decristo, Matt Van (April 22, 2025). "'Moonstruck' Review: Simple Old School Romcom with Little in the way of Romance or Laughs". The Movie Buff.
- ^ Rechtshaffen, Michael (December 17, 2023). "'Moonstruck': THR's 1987 Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved August 6, 2024.
- ^ a b c Moonstruck. Audio Commentary by Norman Jewison, Cher, and John Patrick Shanley. The Criterion Collection, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Schonfeld, Zach. How Coppola Became Cage. Oxford University Press, 2025.
- ^ a b c d Jewison, Norman. This Terrible Business Has Been Good to Me: An Autobiography. St. Martin's Press, 2005. 250–6
- ^ a b Cher. The First Time. As told to Jeff Coplon. Simon & Schuster, 1998.
- ^ Daly, Steve. "High Spirits", Entertainment Weekly. March 15, 1996. 28.
- ^ "Nicolas Cage Breaks Down His Most Iconic Characters", GQ. September 18, 2018.
- ^ Schruers, Fred. "The Passion of Nicolas Cage", Rolling Stone. November 11, 1999.
- ^ Weir, Richard. "NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: CARROLL GARDENS; 'Moonstruck' Bakery Eclipsed", The New York Times. September 20, 1998. 14/9.
- ^ Brown, Blain. Cinematography: Theory and Practice: Image Making for Cinematographers and Directors. Taylor & Francis, 2016. 247f.
- ^ Aiello, Danny. I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else: My Life on the Street, On the Stage, and in the Movies. Gallery Books, 2015. 187.
- ^ Citron, Marcia J. When Opera Meets Film. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. Cambridge Studies in Opera. 183f.
- ^ "Moonstruck". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on April 24, 2013. Retrieved April 4, 2013.
- ^ "UIP's $25M-Plus Club". Variety. September 11, 1995. p. 92.
- ^ "Moonstruck (1987) – History". AFI Catalog of Feature Films. Retrieved July 10, 2024.
Moonstruck opened in New York City, Toronto, and Los Angeles, CA, on 16 Dec 1987 to critical acclaim
- ^ Kael, Pauline. For Keeps: 30 Years at the Movies. New York, Dutton, 1994. 1162–4.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (January 15, 1988). "Moonstruck". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on March 2, 1999.
- ^ Maltin's TV, Movie, & Video Guide
- ^ Gene Siskel (January 15, 1988). "Flick Of Week: Comedy Is King In 'Moonstruck'". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved December 2, 2013.
- ^ "Critics' Choice". Time. April 4, 1988. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
- ^ "Ebert & Roeper and the movies - Best & Worst". June 5, 2001. Archived from the original on June 5, 2001. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
- ^ "The 100 Best Acting Performances by Musicians in Movies". Billboard. October 4, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2025.
- ^ "Moonstruck (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on December 4, 2020. Retrieved January 7, 2026.
- ^ "Moonstruck". Metacritic. Archived from the original on October 4, 2020. Retrieved January 17, 2023.
- ^ "CinemaScore". cinemascore.com. Archived from the original on September 16, 2017. Retrieved May 5, 2021.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla. "The Method and Madness of Nicolas Cage", Sight and Sound, June 1995.
- ^ Karlyn, Kathleen Rowe. The Unruly Woman: Gender and the Genres of Laughter. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. 203.
- ^ "The 60th Academy Awards (1988) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved July 31, 2011.
- ^ "Nominees/Winners". Casting Society of America. Retrieved January 5, 2019.
- ^ "Berlinale: 1988 Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on January 1, 2014. Retrieved March 6, 2011.
- ^ "BAFTA Awards: Film in 1989". BAFTA. 1989. Retrieved September 16, 2016.
- ^ "Moonstruck – Golden Globes". HFPA. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ "KCFCC Award Winners – 1980-89". kcfcc.org. December 14, 2013. Retrieved May 15, 2021.
- ^ "The 13th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards". Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ "1987 Award Winners". National Board of Review. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ "1987 New York Film Critics Circle Awards". New York Film Critics Circle. Retrieved July 5, 2021.
- ^ "Awards Winners". wga.org. Writers Guild of America. Retrieved June 6, 2010.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link) - ^ American Film Institute (June 17, 2008). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on August 18, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008.
- ^ American Film Institute (June 17, 2008). "AFI Crowns Top 10 Films in 10 Classic Genres". ComingSoon.net. Archived from the original on June 19, 2008. Retrieved June 18, 2008.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 16, 2013. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Passions" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 24, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
- ^ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 13, 2011. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
- ^ "AFI's 10 Top 10: Top 10 Romantic Comedy". American Film Institute. Archived from the original on June 15, 2016. Retrieved August 6, 2016.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (June 22, 2003). "Moonstruck". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on April 1, 2009. Retrieved March 14, 2009.
- ^ "101 Greatest Screenplays". Archived from the original on May 18, 2021. Retrieved January 1, 2026.
- ^ "Blu-ray News and Reviews | High Def Digest". bluray.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved June 14, 2025.
- ^ "Blu-ray News and Reviews | High Def Digest". bluray.highdefdigest.com. Retrieved June 14, 2025.
- ^ "Moonstruck (1987)". IMDb.com. Archived from the original on May 5, 2021. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
- ^ "Moonstruck - Original Soundtrack - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Archived from the original on October 27, 2017. Retrieved October 26, 2017.
External links
[edit]
- Moonstruck at IMDb
- Moonstruck at AllMovie
- Moonstruck at Box Office Mojo
- Moonstruck at Rotten Tomatoes
- Moonstruck at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
- Moonstruck at the TCM Movie Database (archived version)
- Moonstruck: Life in the In-Between – an essay by Emily St. James at The Criterion Collection
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