Serious Moonlight (2009)

Simply A Masterpiece

Let's be realistic.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

**May have spoilers****And I don't like most movies lately. I do like the actors. A bit of a chick flick tone but it was refreshing. I expected more comedy from the preview but was delightfully surprised at the drama and so on. Did not expect the ending so that was a nice surprise. Funny, dramatic, sad, pissed you off at times. I enjoyed it.

...........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA....and ORLANDO, FL Serious Moonlight won Best Film at the 2009 Orlando Film Festival. To be brutally honest, I think winning had more to do with leads Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton, along with director Cheryl Hines, being by far the most well-known participants, than it did with the quality(or relative lack thereof) of the film itself.Obviously, SERIOUS was inspired/adapted by a play. Set in a house, in 5 brief acts; Half of all on-screen time is spent in the bathroom, of all places! The basic premise seems like a sure-fire winner: Not-so-successful, burned out husband decides to leave more successful lawyer wife, before she gets home from vacation, for his ditsy, twenty-something secretary. Getting home a day early, wife(Meg Ryan) catches hubby(Timothy Hutton) sneaking out in Stealth Mode. This apparently transports wife to The Twilight Zone, because, from that moment on, she exhibits the most un-attorney-like comportment imaginable! Losing touch with reality, she decides to "kidnap" husband until he has "retuned to his senses" and abandons the idea of abandoning her. Despite some genuinely funny moments, SERIOUS fumbles the execution. Novice Director Cheryl Hines(WAITRESS introduced the film. She seems like a sweet, wonderful person; a rather competent actor; and a totally unimaginative, inexperienced and lackluster director.One sequence, midway into the film, is particularly annoying: Husband and wife, tied up in the bathroom, begin a prolonged argument. For what seems like an endless loop, the only shots/edits we get are ping-pong talking heads. That's it! Ms. Hines, if you somehow get another shot at directing, and the result is not noticeably superior, I suggest you hang-up your director's cap permanently! Timothy Hutton and a rejuvenated Meg Ryan both turn in commendable, but somewhat strained performances (Over-direction Perhaps?) Two things saved SERIOUS: A fair share of laugh-provoking moments; and acts 3 and 4.(Far superior to rest of film) So, instead of 5*-IT GETS 6*.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA!

We find Meg Ryan, who has never looked hotter, lowering herself and losing all dignity to keep a not-so-hot husband who has been cheating on her and who happens to speak and act like a teenager. This alleged comedy contains such humorous ingredients as bondage, torture, brutality, and sexual assault. There is even a scene where a goldfish bowl is smashed onto the floor,with the poor fish flopping about (what..they couldn't have used a rubber prop fish?). The dialog is so unrealistic and the acting so poor that I just couldn't finish watching this self-indulgent exercise in immature drivel.The movie was very disturbing,not so much as you were watching something unrealistic and not so much as you witnessed brutality and sexual molestation, but that it was intended to actually have been funny.

Serious Moonlight is an incredibly execrable movie which should be used in film schools as an example of how NOT to make a movie. I can assure you I am not pleased to say this, because I generally like the work of Cheryl Hines as a comedian, and I would have liked to find some positive elements in her debut as a director. Besides, this movie was written by Adrienne Shelly (1966-2006), a young filmmaker who was tragically murdered 5 years ago, and it seems unfair to posthumously speak against a screenplay which may needed various (better said, a lot of) revisions. Having said all that, I need to go back to the point: Serious Moonlight is an unbearable and repulsive disaster.I still remember the days in which Meg Ryan was considered the "queen of the chick-flicks". Her presence used to be the the indicator that an insipid romantic story was waiting for us, but her natural geniality could make some films from her filmography to be worthy of an at least slight recommendation (such as When a Man Loves a Woman and Kate & Leopold). What happened to her career? Sure, I perfectly understand that the time went by, and that she has now been replaced by younger actresses, such as Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. However, I think Ryan is a competent actress, so it would not be impossible to see her in adult romances. Or, better yet, she could accept substantial and mature dramatic characters (like for example, the one she interpreted in Courage Under Fire). So...how did she end up in such an atrocious and cheap movie like Serious Moonlight? So, in conclusion, Serious Moonlight is a horrible movie which fails in every aspect, from its pathetic screenplay to its atrocious direction. I hope Hines will not direct a movie anymore, and that she will only keep working as an actress. As for Shelly...well, I will try to remember her only for the entertaining Waitress, which she had written and directed.