Moonstruck

I mentioned in my last post that my mother, Daniel, and I watched Moonstruck, the 1987 Oscar-winning movie starring Cher, Nicolas Cage, and Olympia Dukakis.  I knew that my mother and Daniel both loved the movie, so I borrowed it from the University of Rochester’s Multimedia Center.  And why do they love it?  Because it is a fantastic movie, of course.

The story is about a bookkeeper, Loretta (Cher), who becomes engaged.  The man she is to marry is very safe and nice, but she does not really love him.  Later that night, he tells her that he must fly to Sicily to visit his dying mother, so he requests that Loretta contact his brother.  Loretta didn’t even know he had a brother, but calls him anyway, requesting his presence at their wedding.  After the brother, Johnny (Nicolas Cage), hangs up on her, she goes to the bakery in which he works, and demands to talk to him.  He shows her how he lost his hand in an accident and explains that this caused the love of his life to leave him.  For all of this, he blames his brother.  This is why they have been estranged for 5 years.  Loretta follows him to his apartment to talk to him.  After some love-making and a night at the opera, they have fallen deeply in love.  But Loretta’s fiancé is due back from Sicily at any moment, and she will have to tell him the truth about her affair with his brother and how she is in love with Johnny.

It’s a brilliant, hilarious movie with some incredibly memorable characters.  It’s one of those classics that you must see if you haven’t.  Cher won Best Actress and Olympia Dukakis won Best Supporting Actress.  And while he won no Oscars for this role, it is clearly Nicolas Cage’s best work.  Well, maybe except for Fast Times at Ridgemont High…but that’s only because he had no lines.

I'm loving all of the trees in bloom around Park Avenue.