Moonlight and Valentino

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Moonlight and Valentino
MoonlightAndValentino.jpg
Original poster
Directed by David Anspaugh
Written byEllen Simon (play and screenplay)
Produced by Tim Bevan
Eric Fellner
Alison Owen
Starring
Cinematography Julio Macat
Edited by David Rosenbloom
Music by Howard Shore
Production
companies
Distributed by Gramercy Pictures (United States)
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment (United Kingdom) [1]
Release date
  • September 29, 1995 (1995-09-29)
Running time
105 minutes
CountriesUnited States
United Kingdom
Canada
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9 million [2]
Box office$10 million [2]

Moonlight and Valentino is a 1995 comedy-drama film directed by David Anspaugh starring Elizabeth Perkins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kathleen Turner, Whoopi Goldberg and Jon Bon Jovi. The screenplay by Ellen Simon [3] is based on her semi-autobiographical play of the same title, [4] written after the death of her husband. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

Plot

Rebecca Lott is a thirtysomething poetry teacher who is widowed when her husband is killed while jogging. Helping her cope with her grief is a support system consisting of her sister Lucy Trager, a chain-smoker still trying to deal with their mother's death from cancer 14 years earlier; her best friend Sylvie Morrow, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage; and her former stepmother Alberta Russell, a high-powered Wall Street executive so caught up in the financial world she has difficulty relating to anyone not involved with it. Romance finds its way back into Rebecca's life when a flirtatious, handsome younger man hired to paint the house takes an interest in her, and his presence affects the other women as well.

"...the painter also becomes a part of Rebecca’s healing process". [8]

Cast

In addition, Peter Coyote  –in an uncredited appearance –portrays Paul Morrow.

Background

Ellen Simon, daughter of Neil Simon, said:

"In 1988, my husband (and Andrew’s father), Jeff Bishop, was struck by a car while jogging in New York City. He was killed instantly....Most of the time, it was my sister, Nancy; my stepmother (actress Marsha Mason), and my best friend, Claudette. They spent two weeks at my side...these women coming together would make a great story." [9]

"When my husband died and people came around and I felt safe to mourn and really cry, I realized how healing that is. So that was the catharsis, and I wanted to write about that." [10]

Reception

Critical reception

The film earned mostly negative reviews from critics. It holds a 13% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 15 reviews, with an average rating of 4.4/10. [11]

In his review in The New York Times , Stephen Holden called the film "a genteel, buttoned-up soap opera" and added it "wants to be a grand, pull-out-the-stops tearjerker like Terms of Endearment or Beaches . But its situations are so awkwardly contrived that you can almost hear the machinery creaking. [12]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times described the film as "very sincere, very heartfelt and very bad . . . Watching it, I felt trapped in an advice column from one of the women's magazines. I have no doubt many of the heartfelt statements in the film are true (actually, I have many doubts - but never mind). What bothered me was that the story never found a way to make them dramatic, or illustrate them with incidents. The movie is slow, plotless and relentless - one of those deals where you find yourself tapping your watch, to be sure it hasn't stopped." [13]

In Variety , Emanuel Levy called it "sharply observed, if a tad too earnest" and added, "Though screenplay betrays its theatrical origins, Simon resists the temptation to construct the women as broad types . . . [and] to emulate her famous father (Neil Simon) in his younger years, eschewing one-liners in favor of humor that stems directly from the intensely dramatic interactions. But tale's psychological bent drives Simon periodically to resort to an overly clinical, cathartic treatment, with artificially induced conflicts and resolutions . . . Nonetheless, all shortcomings are more than compensated for by the stunning quartet of thesps . . . These four actresses ignite the screen with so much power and charisma that one yearns for more ensemble scenes." [14] [15]

Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle described it as "fitful, tritely amusing" and "filled with little but empty gestures, contrivance and jokes that fizzle." He added, "Still, the movie, for all its imploding moments and artificial dialogue, is surprisingly well-acted, its characters given a chance by director David Anspaugh to be vital, almost as if the actors went to extraordinary pains to overcome the lame script." [16]

In The Washington Post , Desson Howe said the film "skitters somewhere between mildly diverting and lukewarm . . . a feel-good, comically mediocre also-ran . . . the kind of movie in which everyone takes a turn being terminally adorable." [17]

Dennis King said the film "is just too, too precious" and a "self-indulgent movie". [18]

Chris Hicks at Deseret News said "Attempts at cleverness are too clever, characters' quirky traits seem contrived and here the situations are just too obviously a writer's conceit." [19]

Marjorie Baumgarten of The Austin Chronicle said: "Too many paths of emotional discovery are embarked upon without delivering any true sense of arrival or even destination." [20]

Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Online said: "Four women--a widow (Elizabeth Perkins), a virgin (Gwyneth Paltrow), a divorcee (Kathleen Turner) and a wife (Whoopi Goldberg)--are bound loosely together by family and friendship, and although a husband's death, a neurotic young love and a crumbling marriage are thrown into the mix to stir things up a bit, the bonds that attach these women are never truly tested." [21]

Box office

The film grossed $2,484,226 in the United States and Canada and $10 million worldwide. [22] [2]

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References

  1. ↑ "Moonlight and Valentino (1995)". BBFC . Retrieved 2 May 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 "15 years of production". Variety . 14 December 1998. p. 102.
  3. ↑ "Moonlight and Valentino". Concord Theatricals. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  4. ↑ Reed, Janet (4 October 2014). "Moonlight and a "Sip of Coffee for Tired Hearts"". Nevada Daily Mail . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  5. ↑ Simon, Ellen (2003). Moonlight and Valentino. Samuel French, Inc. ISBN   978-0-573-62770-5 . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  6. ↑ Simonson, Robert (September 8, 2001). "LI 'Moonlight' Shines on Neil Simon's Daughter, Sept. 8-30". Playbill . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  7. ↑ Wygant, Bobbie (September 22, 1995). "Ellen Simon: 'Moonlight And Valentino'". Bobbie Wygant Archive. YouTube . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  8. ↑ Tucker, Ken (October 13, 1995). "Moonlight and Valentino". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  9. ↑ Fleischman, Richard (9 October 1994). "From This Simon, It's Chapter One". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  10. ↑ Sydney, Laurin (September 30, 1995). "'Moonlight' - Sept. 30, 1995". CNN . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "Moonlight and Valentino (1995)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  12. ↑ Holden, Stephen. "Facing Widowhood, With Helpful Friends". The New York Times .
  13. ↑ Ebert, Roger (September 29, 1995). "Moonlight And Valentino Movie Review (1995)". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Retrieved July 14, 2022– via RogerEbert.com.
  14. ↑ Levy, Emanuel (October 2, 1995). "Variety review". Variety .
  15. ↑ "Moonlight and Valentino". Catalog. AFI.
  16. ↑ Stack, Peter (September 29, 1995). "'Moonlight' a Little Dim / Study of young widow's grief". San Francisco Chronicle .
  17. ↑ Howe, Desson (September 29, 1995). "'Moonlight and Valentino' (R)". The Washington Post .
  18. ↑ King, Dennis (October 4, 1995). "Moonlight and Valentino". Tulsa World . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  19. ↑ Hicks, Chris (3 October 1995). "Film review: Moonlight and Valentino". Deseret News . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  20. ↑ Baumgarten, Marjorie (September 29, 1995). "Movie Review: Moonlight and Valentino". The Austin Chronicle . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  21. ↑ Aufmuth, Jeanne (September 29, 1995). "Movie Openings". Palo Alto Online . Retrieved 10 December 2022.
  22. ↑ "Moonlight and Valentino (1995) - Box Office Mojo". boxofficemojo.com.
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