Moonlight and Valentino (1995)

Wow! Such a good movie.

Truly Dreadful Film

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

I saw this film shortly before watching In Her Shoes with Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. There are a lot of similarities between the two films. They both have great casts and good acting. They both have stock characters of sisters who are very different, an offensive stepmother, a woman friend/confidant, an emotionally unavailable father, a dead mother and a surprise lover. Both films have the characters experience life-changing realizations and both films suffer from a kind of 'love conquers all' sentimentality. They both add a little titillation with Cameron Diaz in black underwear and a partial back shot of Gwyneth Paltrow naked.Both films seem contrived, as if the writers of the works the films are based on did market research and said, "Ok, there's a market for stories about relationships between women, so I'm going to write about two sisters with an offensive stepmother…" In other words, instead of the drama emerging from the truth of the relationship, the relationship is invented to fit the dramatic situation. It seems forced, the characters don't seem real, the relationships are unbelievable.The resolution of the tensions between the characters is simplistic with simple apologies completely whisking away years of acrimony leaving everyone feeling warm and fuzzy ever after. It's just not real. Romantic fantasy.The characters in In Her Shoes are a little more overblown than Moonlight & Valentino, especially the stepmother part. Sydelle Feller, in In Her Shoes is so evil that it is difficult to believe that the father would stay with her, or even marry her in the first place. Kathleen Turner at least shows some emotional vulnerability as the stepmother in Moonlight & Valentino.If you liked Moonlight & Valentino you will probably like In Her Shoes as well. Enjoyable performances in both, in fact, the actors bring depth to their parts that goes way beyond the contrived sentimentality of the scripts.

I just got finished watching this movie last night. I had always wanted to see it and so when it unexpectedly came on tv last night, I decided to watch it. Well...I have mixed feelings about this movie.****************NOTE!! SPOILERS!!!!*************************I thought the acting overall was good...I was a bit dissapointed however in Perkin's character, and how emotionless she was after he husband died. I know that part of this was because she was partly shocked and in denial, but still....I expected a STRONGER outburst of emotion from her. This is your HUSBAND that has just died for goodness sakes! Not only that, but I felt like this movie tended to go on and on with not real point. IT felt very boring at times, and just plotless. I liked how the movie focuses on each of the women's lives and the problems they are facing in them, however if I were the director, I would have had the movie continue on with a slightly FASTER pace. The movie felt like 2 hours long when I had only watched an hour of it!Bottom line: I didn't even finish this movie because it was just sooo slow and kind of boring. I was already tired to begin with...I didn't need this movie to put me even faster to sleep. However, if you want a good chick flick about women overcoming thier problems in life, then this movie is for you. The acting is great (except that little part I mentioned above) and the it's a touching story about enduring hardships, and moving on with your life after a tragic death.

A recently widowed woman (Elizabeth Perkins) tries to cope with the help of her baby sister (Gwyneth Paltrow), ex-stepmother (Kathleen Turner) and best friend (Whoppi Goldberg). Talky but fascinating. All the actresses give great performances with Perkins getting top honors--she's just fantastic in a difficult role. All the characters come across as believable and interesting. The script is great too--they talk and act like real people. Nice soundtrack too. Some may deride this as a "chick flick", but I'm a guy and I loved it! Two (minor) quibbles--Jon Bon Jovi is pretty bad as a painter. He's unattractive, not in shape and pretty wooden. It's no surprise his acting career has gone nowhere. And the ending at the cemetery seemed a little overdone but it still works. But, like I said, these are minor complaints. Well worth seeing.

The movie does not leave you with anything, and it seems as though it wanted to. Gwyneth is annoying as usual; her character is to blame too. Whoopi is vivid and charming. Kathleen's character is interesting and real. It sounds like a list, and the movie also does. As Elizabeth Perkins character, it is too neat and structured. The movie's name Moonlight and Valentino makes you expect Bon Jovi to come and effect something, but all he does -after much too long in the film- is steer Elizabeth to a scene that may have worked in the play the movie is based on, but I'm not so sure. All in all: uneven. Most of the time I wanted to see these characters in different situations, perhaps doing something or saying anything. The small storylines are interesting than Elizabeth dealing with the death of her husband: Whoopi and her husband (uncredited Peter Coyote), and Gwyneth and Kathleen. Liked hearing REM's Strange Currencies at the background, and Canda's beautiful.