A Walk on the Moon
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Anna Paquin, Diane Lane, Liev Schreiber, Tovah Feldshuh, Viggo MortensenBrand: Buena Vista Home Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
Published: 1999-10-01
DVD Release Date: 1999-10-12
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Miramax
Movie Reviews of A Walk on the Moon
Movie Review: Petting and Pawing in the Catskills
Summary: 5 Stars
I get an emotional kick out of A Walk on the Moon, its double-entendre title aside. For me, the DVD is a winner for three reasons: 1) Viggo Mortensen plays a romantic (OK, lusty) leading man; 2) Diane Lane does her unfaithful best three years before her Academy Award-winning turn opposite Richard Gere in Unfaithful; and 3) I get to experience, albeit vicariously, a smidgen of the goings-on at summertime resorts in the Catskills. Let me work my way backward. ...
As a tween living on the East Coast in the mid-'70s, I recall my cousins' families and mine driving upstate to Sullivan County, New York, several weekends out of every summer. Destination: Great big country house a la The Waltons. With my cousins and I belting out every lyric to sunny songs such as The Captain and Tennille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" and Elton John's "Philadelphia Freedom" as their melodies bounced around the car and out of the open windows, life felt as if it could not get any better. Approaching the Catskills, we would read aloud the colorful billboards announcing the different summer resorts. One time I got up the nerve to ask the adults in the car why we never went to any of those resorts and was told matter-of-factly that we would not be accepted there. So as I got older, I always fantasized that the Catskills resorts had to be boatloads of fun to be so exclusive and all. Dirty Dancing (20th Anniversary Edition), while fictional, definitely gave me a glimpse into the exciting lifestyle behind those wonderful billboards. All of this to say that when watching A Walk on the Moon, I feel like an outsider looking into a life I never had the privilege to enjoy. ...
A Walk on the Moon also has many cinematic elements in its favor: breathtaking cinematography, a painstaking attention to time and place, and authentic regional dialects and vernacular. For those viewers who perceive the film's pacing as long and drawn-out, I challenge them with this paradigm shift: Think of the slow pacing as a metaphor for lust's fever running its course amid summer's sweltering heat. ...
Diane Lane is a force to be reckoned with when she portrays a character whose marriage just isn't working out. A Walk on the Moon predated Unfaithful (Widescreen Edition) by three years, so we viewers get a chance to see how she has perfected acting out the visceral female erotic response that perhaps many women envy. That pivotal scene at the rear of the bus, in which she and the Blouse Man seem totally oblivious to a major milestone in world history -- hence, the film's title -- is no less intense than the scene in Unfaithful when she is on the train reminiscing about quivering beneath (hunka-hunka-burnin'-love luscious) Olivier Martinez hours earlier. Watching her squirming in her seat on that train, as she alternates between bliss and angst, I felt as if I had experienced the affair! In fact, I have had to hit the Pause button on the remote, leave the room and ice down my forehead.
Lane knows how to embody a free spirit, whether in Unfaithful, in which her character double-crosses her attorney husband -- who ironically stakes his career on loyalty -- in Under the Tuscan Sun (Widescreen Edition), where American divorcee meets Fellini's La Dolce Vita (Deluxe Collector's Edition), or here, in A Walk on the Moon. ...
Lastly, the No. 1 reason I love A Walk on the Moon is Viggo Mortensen in the role of the Blouse Man. His gaze alone is intense. He possesses a certain je ne sais quoi, an erotically hypnotic, intangible quality that actors such as Clark Gable, Marlon Brando and Steve McQueen translated very well on screen. Serving as brilliant contemporary examples would be Robert DeNiro, Idris Elba and Clive Owen. Oh, and Daniel Sunjata (oh, sing a joyous, sweet Noel). Female actors who also have that seductive quality include Kathleen Turner and Faye Dunaway as past examples; Jessica Lange, Angelina Jolie and Vivica Fox as current examples.
This DVD, A Walk on the Moon, has the starpower and emotional depth of a retro classic. Oh, and by the way, if the Blouse Man does not inspire you to go shopping, please check your pulse.
Summary of A Walk on the Moon
Although its tale of marital crisis unfolds a bit too cleanly, "A Walk on the Moon"--which was coproduced by Dustin Hoffman--offers a welcome relief from the juvenile assault of skull-throbbing blockbusters. The story is gently involving, the characters are authentic, and, best of all, Diane Lane is given a chance to show why she's one of the most genuine and underrated actresses of her generation. Here she plays Pearl Kantrowitz, a devoted housewife on a routine vacation in the Catskills with her TV repairman husband Marty (Liev Schreiber), 14-year-old daughter (Anna Paquin), and rambunctious younger son (Tovah Feldshuh).\n It's the summer of 1969. Neil Armstrong has made his "one small step for man," Woodstock is about to happen nearby (leading to a barely plausible dramatic coincidence), and while her husband is away on business, Pearl is cautiously receptive to the seductions of "the blouse man" (Viggo Mortensen), a hippie salesman who offers the adventure and passion that Pearl sacrificed to young pregnancy and marriage. Once the stage for infidelity is set, "A Walk on the Moon" progresses predictably, but first-time screenwriter Pamela Gray stays true to the emotions of her characters, and actor Tony Goldwyn (making a smooth directorial debut) maintains precisely the right tone to downplay most of the movie's dramatic clich?©s. Add to this a sharp dynamic between Lane and Paquin, whose performances create a substantial mother-daughter relationship. Graced by stolen moments and fleeting expressions that speak volumes, this unassuming little film is eminently worthwhile. "--Jeff Shannon"Although its tale of marital crisis unfolds a bit too cleanly, A Walk on the Moon--which was coproduced by Dustin Hoffman--offers a welcome relief from the juvenile assault of skull-throbbing blockbusters. The story is gently involving, the characters are authentic, and, best of all, Diane Lane is given a chance to show why she's one of the most genuine and underrated actresses of her generation. Here she plays Pearl Kantrowitz, a devoted housewife on a routine vacation in the Catskills with her TV repairman husband Marty (Liev Schreiber), 14-year-old daughter (Anna Paquin), and rambunctious younger son (Tovah Feldshuh).
It's the summer of 1969. Neil Armstrong has made his "one small step for man," Woodstock is about to happen nearby (leading to a barely plausible dramatic coincidence), and while her husband is away on business, Pearl is cautiously receptive to the seductions of "the blouse man" (Viggo Mortensen), a hippie salesman who offers the adventure and passion that Pearl sacrificed to young pregnancy and marriage. Once the stage for infidelity is set, A Walk on the Moon progresses predictably, but first-time screenwriter Pamela Gray stays true to the emotions of her characters, and actor Tony Goldwyn (making a smooth directorial debut) maintains precisely the right tone to downplay most of the movie's dramatic clichés. Add to this a sharp dynamic between Lane and Paquin, whose performances create a substantial mother-daughter relationship. Graced by stolen moments and fleeting expressions that speak volumes, this unassuming little film is eminently worthwhile. --Jeff Shannon
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