Arizona Reporter - Movie Reviews - 18/11
SERIOUS MOONLIGHT


Bookmark and Share


Magnolia Pictures
Reviewed for Arizona Reporter by Harvey Karten
Grade: C
Directed by: Cheryl Hines
Written By: Adrienne Shelly
Cast: Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, Justin Long
Screened at: Review 1, NYC, 11/17/09
Opens: December 4, 2009

If your long-term spouse casts an eye on others, particularly younger potentials, that’s not unusual. That syndrome was codified into hilarious celluloid, Billy Wilder’s 1955 film “The Seven Year Itch.” The question now is what to do if your husband has been flirting with another and you suspect that he plans to leave you forever (the passion just died) and go with his mistress to Paris on a romantic pre-honeymoon. Louise (Meg Ryan) is faced with that situation, if you can believe that anyone would want to Ms Ryan (strangely enough, it happened in real life). She hits on an idea to get her husband, Ian (Timothy Hutton), back despite his growing relationship with much younger Sara (Kristen Bell), whose blank good looks belie her alleged smarts.



Twitter.com/ArizonaReporter



If you’re thinking of what to do to bring back your lover and you have not yet seen Cheryl Hines’s “Serious Moonlight,” written by the late Adrienne Shelly, consider Michael Haneke’s “Funny Games,” a terrific thriller that finds two psychotic youths in tennis outfits working their way into the home of a wealthy couple, tying them up and planning to kill them—though more out of envy than for money. In a broadly similar vein, when Ian announces his plan to leave Louise for good, she knocks him out, binds him with duct tape, and threatens to leave him in that condition until he regains his senses and declares his love for her.

This is a pretty wacko idea that would appear to have no chance of working, in fact one that could convince Ian that his former s.o. belongs in the loony bin, but leave it to the movies to find a way, a situation that involves the incursion into the household of a burglar in the guise of a gardener (Justin Long).

Meg Ryan is the one to watch in this combination crime/romance/horror tale that provides a stage for her enormous thespian talents. The key word is “stage.” A claustrophobic adventure that takes place almost exclusively in the couple’s bathroom, with the man attached to the toilet, “Serious Moonlight” would have a better platform on one of New York’s office-Broadway stages. Timothy Hutton, whose role calls for him to scream his lungs out at times, lacks the optimum ambience to test his own acting chops. Hutton is almost completely upstaged by Ryan, while the burglar, played by the now ubiquitous, 31-year-old Justin Long (“Youth in Revolt,” “Funny People,” “He’s Just Not that Into You,” “Drag Me to Hell”), has scant opportunity to steal the show.

Aside from the claustrophobic setting, “Serious Moonlight” has a script that cannot be favorably compared to that of writer-director Adrienne Shelly’s “Waitress,” which deals as well with an affair, that one involving a married doctor who becomes the heartthrob of a pie-baking coffee-shop server. By contrast, “Waitress” is chock-full of wit, both caustic and homespun.

SERIOUS MOONLIGHT (Magnolia Pictures)
Rated R. 84 minutes. © 2009 by Harvey Karten Member: NY Film Critics Online




© 2010 Arizona Reporter (reproduction prohibited)
blog comments powered by Disqus

Entertainment

Stallone, "Bullets are easy , emotions are hard"

I like two types of films, action and westerns, both with guns, balls and beautiful women. Bullets and blood are exactly how Sly closed out his infamous Rambo franchise and as a director he has learned a vital ingredient in filmmaking-to surround oneself with the finest in the trade that can compliment the grittiness and violence his more recent films are known for.

Two Stand Up For Mel Gibson, One Rich, One Poor

Probably one of the best examples of Tourette Syndrome I can think of is the Irish bartender characterized by (Gerard Parkes) in Troy Duffy's directed franchise - The Boondock Saints. Simple or complex the neurological disorder affects more people than one would imagine. Historically having its suffers labeled with being demon possessed.

Quantum Leap Thinking

You Don't Have to Do It Alone

How many wonderful ideas have never been put out in world because their creator was afraid of appearing foolish? How many people have stifled their creativity because of fear? How many of you have never allowed your creative vision to become reality for fear of asking for help or creating a partnership? Far too many, I'm afraid.
More Quantum Thinking

  Finding AZR
  XML/RSS Feed


Subscribe Via Kindle

AZR is iPhone™ & iPad™ Compatible

Around Arizona

Believe your free? Want to stay that way?

Write just one sentence. Just one, I dare you... I double dare you... I triple-dog-dare you!

WRITE YOUR REPRESENTATIVE.

Of Fruit-Flies And Mosquitoes, Post Monsoon Mayhem

AZR - It's that time of year again as the monsoon rains peak; only to to give way to humidity, fruit flies and the upcoming mosquito season. Were taking this opportunity to share with you a couple tricks to ridding your home of these pesky bugs.



Arizona Guide

Arizona Fishing Report Sept. 1

With dove season being open (Sept. 1), it's a good time for a cast-n-blast trip, especially along the lower Colorado River.

Yuma has the prime dove hunting with all of its agricultural fields. During the past two weeks, however, I witnessed lots of doves all along the Colorado River from the Topock Gorge to Yuma (and also lots of fat quail for October fin and feather trips).

Arizona Events

Tucson Spanish and Flamenco Festival

2nd Annual Spanish and Flamenco Festival in historic downtown Tucson. This is a unique opportunity to experience flamenco and Spanish culture in a traditional late-night, outdoor festival atmosphere. Traditional Spanish tapas will be served along with Casa Vicente's extensive dinner menu.


Susan Granger Reviews


Piranha 3-D - Scary, Sicko and Chock Full O'Carnage

When many critics, including me, review a movie they take into consideration how well it accomplishes what it sets out to do. If it's a B horror-flick, is it a real fright-fest? Do you cringe? Do you shriek? If the answer is yes - then it accomplishes what it's meant to do, like "Snakes on a Plane."

Harvey Critic


THE AMERICAN, Grade: C

It's chic for a movie critic to say that "the book is better," but in this case-considering that the story is a slow-moving psychological suspense thriller-Martin Booth's 1990 novel is the way to go. As you turn the pages you will doubtless wonder what comes next, the type of tale that intrigues on the page but comes across inert on the big screen. As directed by Anton Corbijn, "The American" is spare of dialogue (script by Rowan Joffe and the novelist), the music by Herbert Grönemeyer either non-existent or anything but intrusive, with a landscape in Italy's Abruzzo region that's, what should we say, European? The medieval town built on a hill, scene of most of the action, would be nice to drive through but would hardly entice tourists to stay overnight. This is the sort of place, however, that a fellow in the service of assassins might want to live, a form of redemption that he would not likely find in his home country but rather as an expatriate living the quiet life away from what novelist Martin Booth calls "the shadow-dwellers."

      The Web Newsroom     Twitter     Arizona Reporter     XML/RSS