Moonstruck Review

There’s a particularly winning moment at the climax of this sparkling, gently peculiar comedy when the old grandpa, who has been wandering in and out of the amorous action walking his many dogs, bursts into tears. “I’m confused,” he says. And who can blame him? Under the influence of a magical full moon in Manhattan his family has been running around with fire in their bellies, and it ain’t indigestion — although they do wolf down startling quantities of Italian food. John Patrick Shanley’s Oscar-winning screenplay for Norman Jewison’s beautifully made, offbeat tale of amore is full of rich little episodes and frequently poetic outbursts, seized by a marvellous cast as a normally down-to-earth but emotional Italian-American bunch in the throes of several mid-life crises. Cher is great as the greying widowed book-keeper Loretta Castorini, who discovers passion and opera with maimed baker Ronny (the always eccentric, here attractively so, Nicolas Cage). She and Olympia Dukakis were rightly popular winners of 87’s actress Oscars. Captivating viewing.