From The Godfather onwards, the Italian American world was a popular cultural backdrop for movies of all sorts in the 70s and 80s. Most of these were about gangsters (even when they were comedies, as in the 1985 movie Prizzi's Honor), but as Moonstruck shows, there were plenty of other stereotypes to be exploited without resorting to gun-toting Mafiosi.
Moonstruck features numerous tropes of Italian culture – vendettas, elderly matriarchs, romantic opera etc., etc., etc Often these are in a satirical light, such as Nicholas Cage's absolutely pathetic excuse for "bad blood". But none of this is actually very funny. The movie is really a mess of clichés and crisscrossing romantic subplots, with occasional musings on the nature of love and fidelity, none of which seems quite as intelligent or cohesive as it seems to thinks it is.
Cher carries the movie's Italian American cliché through to her performance, which is full of extravagant gesture. She just about keeps the lid on theatricality, and does some fairly good emoting later on, but she was nowhere near deserving of the Academy Award. Nicholas Cage continues his then-current trend of playing the young, pretentious "tortured soul", and while he's not outstanding there aren't many actors who could make such a ridiculous figure into a credible romantic lead. Danny Aiello is always fun to see but he is underused here. It is Olympia Dukakis who really gives the picture its only great, solid dramatic performance.
Director Norman Jewison directs with an eye towards beauty and eye-catching imagery. Early on, Cher is often duplicated in reflection, concentrating us on her visage. There's a really neat set-up when Cher is on the phone to Aiello, with Aiello's dying mother in the background of one shot and the healthy Dukakis in the equivalent position of the other shot. The whole thing has that wonderful late 80s/early 90s look, of a city glowing in the night, and this is perhaps the only thing I really like about it. That, and the fact that at 100 minutes it is mercifully short. As a romantic movie, it moves me not at all. I speak English and I can even get by in Italian, but for all that it meant to me Moonstruck was incomprehensible.
Moonstruck features numerous tropes of Italian culture – vendettas, elderly matriarchs, romantic opera etc., etc., etc Often these are in a satirical light, such as Nicholas Cage's absolutely pathetic excuse for "bad blood". But none of this is actually very funny. The movie is really a mess of clichés and crisscrossing romantic subplots, with occasional musings on the nature of love and fidelity, none of which seems quite as intelligent or cohesive as it seems to thinks it is.
Cher carries the movie's Italian American cliché through to her performance, which is full of extravagant gesture. She just about keeps the lid on theatricality, and does some fairly good emoting later on, but she was nowhere near deserving of the Academy Award. Nicholas Cage continues his then-current trend of playing the young, pretentious "tortured soul", and while he's not outstanding there aren't many actors who could make such a ridiculous figure into a credible romantic lead. Danny Aiello is always fun to see but he is underused here. It is Olympia Dukakis who really gives the picture its only great, solid dramatic performance.
Director Norman Jewison directs with an eye towards beauty and eye-catching imagery. Early on, Cher is often duplicated in reflection, concentrating us on her visage. There's a really neat set-up when Cher is on the phone to Aiello, with Aiello's dying mother in the background of one shot and the healthy Dukakis in the equivalent position of the other shot. The whole thing has that wonderful late 80s/early 90s look, of a city glowing in the night, and this is perhaps the only thing I really like about it. That, and the fact that at 100 minutes it is mercifully short. As a romantic movie, it moves me not at all. I speak English and I can even get by in Italian, but for all that it meant to me Moonstruck was incomprehensible.