Shoot the Moon
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Movie Reviews of Shoot the Moon
Movie Review: A strange and rare quality
Summary: 5 Stars
It is often said that Shoot the moon is not one of Alan Parker best movies. I totally disagree: Shoot the moon IS one of Alan Parker best movies. It has a strange and rare quality: after a while you're seeing it, you feel it under the skin going straight to your heart, where it stands. I don't know exactly why it happens: maybe because the movie is so honestly written and directed, and performed in a such intense way, that you never think it's fiction, you ever feel it's life, real painful life, and you don't need to be divorcing or be divorced to feel it.
The care of details (that tell us a lot about the emotional history of the marriage), certain shots of the country all around (that often seem the visualization of the main characters' state of mind) and the talent for making the house a living place (you never think it's a set), as much as the ability of shocking with some powerful, accurately prepared scenes, reveal Alan Parker's unique touch. Bo Goldman's script depicts love affairs for what they really often are: heaps of weakness and contradictions fenced in by jealousy (and yet, at the end, there is a chance that they can start again).
Albert Finney and Diane Keaton are at thier best and never, never, even for a minute, you can doubt that they were husband and wife: when George looks at Faith phoning with another man, or simply talking with Frank, you can breathe his rage; and when Fiath tries to explain her daughter Sherry that George left his wife, not his children, you can feel her nostalgia and pain together: for the old beautiful days when they loved each other and maybe they considered to be invincible,and now they are miserably facing the failure of their marriage.
Young actresses playing the daughters are all excellent, but I would like to put in a really good word for Dana Hill (1964-1996): when her father breaks into the house and beat her, and she pulls out a small knife crying "Bastard" to him, she broke my heart. Even only for this one scene, she would have deserved an Academy award. I think she might have been a star, a long shining star. Death took her body, not the happy memory of her talent.
Shoot the moon risked to fail because of the subject, but in the end it definetly succeeded, it shot the moon. I highly recommend it.
Movie Review: Emotional Scenes from a Marriage.
Summary: 5 Stars
"If I give my heart to you, I must be sure from the very start, that you would love me more than her, cause I couldn't stand the pain . . ." There is an intensely painful scene in this movie that has haunted me ever since first seeing this movie years ago. Diane Keaton's character is in the bathtub smoking a joint, singing the Beatles' song, "If I Fell" after her husband has left her for another woman.
Also known for his work as a director on such memorable films as Midnight Express, Pink Floyd - The Wall, Mississippi Burning, and The Life of David Gale, Sir Alan Parker's film, Shoot the Moon (1981), follows the deterioration of a 15-year marriage between a Marin County couple played by Albert Finney and Diane Keaton. Finney plays George, a writer who has decided to leave his wife, Faith, and their four daughters for another woman (Karen Allen). Parker's film is not so much about what went wrong with the couple's marriage as the emotional consequences following their decision to divorce, which is exactly what makes this film so unique. Quite like Ingmar Bergman's Scenes From a Marriage, Parker's sophisticated film is permeated with a raw, gut-wrenching emotional power that is rarely found in Hollywood relationship films. This is by no means a feel-good love story. Rather, it is a love story that feels real. Not only do George and Faith discover it is impossible to let go of their shared history together (even though they know their marriage is over), they also find it just as impossible to move forward separately. Keaton and Finney's fine performances are nothing less than one would expect from them. Highly recommended.
G. Merritt
Movie Review: Marriage D.O.A.
Summary: 5 Stars
When "Shoot the Moon" begins the union of George(Albert Finney) and Faith Dunlap (Diane Keaton) is already in it's death throes just ready to put in the final nails and throw some dirt on it. As they prepare for an awards dinner, George is upstairs on the phone with his girlfriend(Karen Allen) while downstairs Faith pretends not to notice while preparing their four young daughters for bed. The next day they officially call it quits and in the ensuing weeks the Dunlaps barely maintain their civility towards each other "for the sake of the kids". What makes "Shoot the Moon" most compelling is how the breakup effects the girls. Sherry (Dana Hill), the oldest and has the best comprehension of what's happening, is a ball of seething emotions. George's betrayal of her mother was a betrayal of her as well. There's a very raw scene in the film where George wants to present Sherry with the gift of a typewriter for her birthday and Sherry won't accept it. The younger girls are oblivious to the situation and continue on despite this interruption of their routine. An awkward scene involves the girls greeting their father's girlfriend in the presence of their mother. You believe these girls to be sisters which shouldn't be surprising since two of the actresses playing them are Tina Yothers(TV's "Family Ties") and Tracey Gold ("TV's "Growing Pains"). There are no convenient villains here and you sympathize with all involved. Credit stars Finney and Keaton for delivering subtle performances with little showiness or histrionics. Director Alan Parker and screenwiter Bo Goldman have crafted a work that is both mesmerizing and heartbreaking. As I recall, "Shoot the Moon" delivered little box office despite uniformly good reviews in 1982. I prefer this film over the slicker account of divorce, "Kramer vs. Kramer", that had box office and won the Best Picture Oscar in 1979.Movie Review: So Glad This Is On DVD, A Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
George and Faith Dunlap are getting a divorce. This mostly affects George, Faith, and their eldest daughter. George's new love interest,with whom he now resides, tells George that if he doesn't work out, she will go on to find someone who will. Faith's new love interest, the creator of a tennis court that is being developed on the sprawling Dunlap family property during the whole film, seems quite taken by Faith, yet seems to be a survivor of the school of hard knocks, even at a relatively youthful age, and someone able to pull himself together should life throw him any pitfall. One scene I always remember from the film happens when George introduces his four girls to his girlfriend at her beach property for the first time. The girlfriend, with an enormous smile [Karen Allen has an enormous smile], tells the girls that she has cookies and lemonade. The girls exchange a conspiratory disgustful look [who, but someone evil, would mess with the classic, milk and cookies] and at the moment one knows that she will not be on the girls' team, and because of that, they most likely will not be on hers. Familiarity is a theme throughout the film. Even though one senses that things were not good at Faith and George's house before they separated routine seems to be something they all used to depend on, and begin to miss, especially when they realize that those days are gone for good.
Someone told me that she saw this in a "family living" class at school. The acting is great. The finale is something that will stay with most viewers well after the film has ended. I taped this off of HBO a long time ago, and the tape has long expired, so very glad it is now available on DVD.
Movie Review: One of the Greatest American Films of our Time
Summary: 5 Stars
It is wonderful that Warner Home Video has finally done right by 'Shoot The Moon'. For while the original film's theatrical release happened in January of 1982, it was originally meant for December of 1981. This was the beginning of the disservice that MGM paid this film. Unfortunately, Warren Beatty made sure of this by not allowing Diane Keaton to appear in any film that would compete in the same Academy Award qualifying period as Beatty's 'Reds'. Consequently, 'Shoot The Moon' was dumped into theatres in January. People took notice though. The Writer's Guild nominated Bo Goldman for his original screenplay, and leading critics Pauline Kael, David Denby, Peter Travers, Vincent Canby, and Charles Champlin hailed the film as a Masterpiece. But the film's only chance to eventually find an audience was if Oscar voters remembered it when they cast their ballots 13 months later. They didn't - and that was the sorry death toll for a film that has been criminally absent for 25 years from America's cinematic landscape. It is Parker's, Finney's and Keaton's finest work, and they stand on the broad shoulders of one of the best pieces of American screenwriting of all time: Legendary screenwriter, Bo Goldman, who won Oscars for: 'One Flew Over the Cukoo's Nest', 'Melvin & Howard', and was nominated for 'Scent of a Woman' - did his very best work with 'Shoot the Moon'. Thank you Warner Home Video.Shoot the Moon