'Moonlight Mile' expresses every human emotion, and does it so well that watching this film is like experiencing an emotional revelation.
It is so beautiful, so wonderful, a brilliant meditation of human tragedy, grief, and loss. At least, that is what I heard that it was about when I first saw it. Expecting a retread of last year's electrifying 'In The Bedroom', I came out of the theatre a very surprised moviegoer. Instead of a melancholy, dark study of the psyche, 'Moonlight Mile' was a happy, upbeat film about how, so often after we experience loss, we let the past take over the present, and never let go. The film is a story of three very complex, intellegent individuals. The main character, Joe Nast, is a young man who has just lost his fiancee, Diana, in a tragic murder. We do not see his grief; he bottles it up inside his head, and is only expressed in his dreams. The second character, Ben Floss, is a self-made small-town American, who takes in Joe as his son after Diana, his daughter, is killed. He is very tidy (he cannot stand the telephone not being answered), and very idealistic. The third character is Ben's wife and Diana's mother, JoJo, who, unlike her husband, is very cynical free-spirited writer. Ben shows his grief over Diana's death by taking Joe inside his house and his work. Joe is his new associate; he and JoJo see right through Ben's attempts to forget the horendous event that only happened weeks ago. Then, something unexpected happens. Joe meets Cheryl, a young postal service employee. As they search through the mail for Joe's wedding invitations (the wedding obviously being called off), they glance at each other, and soon, they fall in love and discover that they have both lost love ones in the past. This is great movie. I was first attracted to it because of its similarities to 'In The Bedroom'; but I found a different film, a film that is so sweet, funny, innocent, and above all, heartbreaking. The performances are pitch-perfect: Dustin Hoffman wonderfully recreates the role of the atypical small-town man. Holly Hunter is very effective as the serious, but caring assistant D.A. Susan Sarandon has played this role so many times, and yet every time, she is great. But the film's best performance is that of Jake Gyllanhaal, who plays the young protagonist with a deep complexity, and never allows the great Hoffman or Sarandon to upstage him. He is confident, and should get an Oscar nomination, if the world was fair. But the world isn't fair, and these characters discover that. Diana did not derserve to die, but out of her death came a new life for Joe, and a rebirth of Ben and JoJo's marriage. This is a movie to be treasured for generations to come.
It is so beautiful, so wonderful, a brilliant meditation of human tragedy, grief, and loss. At least, that is what I heard that it was about when I first saw it. Expecting a retread of last year's electrifying 'In The Bedroom', I came out of the theatre a very surprised moviegoer. Instead of a melancholy, dark study of the psyche, 'Moonlight Mile' was a happy, upbeat film about how, so often after we experience loss, we let the past take over the present, and never let go. The film is a story of three very complex, intellegent individuals. The main character, Joe Nast, is a young man who has just lost his fiancee, Diana, in a tragic murder. We do not see his grief; he bottles it up inside his head, and is only expressed in his dreams. The second character, Ben Floss, is a self-made small-town American, who takes in Joe as his son after Diana, his daughter, is killed. He is very tidy (he cannot stand the telephone not being answered), and very idealistic. The third character is Ben's wife and Diana's mother, JoJo, who, unlike her husband, is very cynical free-spirited writer. Ben shows his grief over Diana's death by taking Joe inside his house and his work. Joe is his new associate; he and JoJo see right through Ben's attempts to forget the horendous event that only happened weeks ago. Then, something unexpected happens. Joe meets Cheryl, a young postal service employee. As they search through the mail for Joe's wedding invitations (the wedding obviously being called off), they glance at each other, and soon, they fall in love and discover that they have both lost love ones in the past. This is great movie. I was first attracted to it because of its similarities to 'In The Bedroom'; but I found a different film, a film that is so sweet, funny, innocent, and above all, heartbreaking. The performances are pitch-perfect: Dustin Hoffman wonderfully recreates the role of the atypical small-town man. Holly Hunter is very effective as the serious, but caring assistant D.A. Susan Sarandon has played this role so many times, and yet every time, she is great. But the film's best performance is that of Jake Gyllanhaal, who plays the young protagonist with a deep complexity, and never allows the great Hoffman or Sarandon to upstage him. He is confident, and should get an Oscar nomination, if the world was fair. But the world isn't fair, and these characters discover that. Diana did not derserve to die, but out of her death came a new life for Joe, and a rebirth of Ben and JoJo's marriage. This is a movie to be treasured for generations to come.