Box Of Moonlight Review

Box Of Moonlight
Taking a break from his stressful city job, a construction foreman befriends a crazy country boy.

by Christopher Hemblade |
Published on
Release Date:

18 Apr 1997

Running Time:

112 minutes

Certificate:

15

Original Title:

Box Of Moonlight

The latest offering from the man behind Johnny Suede and Living In Oblivion is a road movie that mixes the weird with the wonderful in equal measures.

The action circles around Al Fountain (Turturro), an anally retentive construction boss whose well-maintained wires short circuit when he discovers his first grey hair and begins to visualize surreal images. Although he tries to maintain a semblance of normality with his wife and son, Bobby, during their daily telephone conversations, he is clearly a man in need of a break. When his construction crew is called off their current contract, he decides to break off from the main group, hire himself a car and embark on an adventure. And that's when he meets and bonds with a modern day forest dwelling hermit, Buckie (Rockwell).

DiCillo is superbly astute at creating an edgy sense of forboding in his films (the middle American OAPs who carry an axe on country walks in this film are as creepy as the dwarf in his movie-within-a-movie in Living In Oblivion). And the extraordinary Turturro is put to good use with measured support from spunky Rockwell and the luscious Keener as a phone sex operator.

An all-talking touchy-feely road movie of sorts, this perfectly utilises the isn't-life-shit-this-decade motif that characterises many of the best movies of the moment with a melancholy tone.

Despite a disappointing ending, DiCillo still maintains his reputation as one of the finest American independent directors around.
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