''Moonlight Mile'' is a 2002 American
romantic drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
written and directed by
Brad Silberling
Bradley Mitchell Silberling (born September 8, 1963) is an American television and film director whose credits include the feature films ''Casper'' (1995), '' City of Angels'' (1998), '' Moonlight Mile'' (2002), '' Lemony Snicket's A Series of U ...
. This film was loosely inspired by writer/director Brad Silberling's own experience. He was dating actress
Rebecca Schaeffer
Rebecca Lucile Schaeffer (November 6, 1967 – July 18, 1989) was an American actress and model. She began her career as a teen model before moving on to acting. In 1986, she landed the role of Patricia "Patti" Russell in the CBS comedy ''My Sis ...
at the time she was killed by an obsessed fan in 1989.
The film takes its name from the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
song of the same name. The film's original title was ''Baby's in Black'', and then later changed to ''Goodbye Hello'', and then the current title. The film is set in 1973 and music from that era is heavily featured, including that of the Rolling Stones,
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in t ...
,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
, and
Elton John
Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, pianist and composer. Commonly nicknamed the "Rocket Man" after his 1972 hit single of the same name, John has led a commercially successful career a ...
.
Plot
Following the murder of Diana Floss in a restaurant in
Cape Ann
Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns of ...
,
in 1972, her fiancé Joe Nast elects to stay with her parents. Her father, Ben, is a realtor whose business partner has recently left. Ben and Joe go into business as Floss & Son, as this was their plan before Diana's death. Joe goes to the post office to retrieve all the invitations that had been sent out for his and Diana's wedding, and with the help of Bertie Knox he retrieves seventy-four of seventy-five. She finds the last invitation and takes it to his house later that night. He drops her off at a local bar, and returns home, despite her inviting him in for a drink. Joe and Ben attend a local property fair, and Ben pitches the idea of redeveloping a block in the town to developer Mike Mulcahey. Mulcahey agrees, but they need to get all the tenants to agree.
Diana's friends come around to look through her possessions, much to the consternation of her mother, Jojo. They then take Joe out for a drink at the same bar Bertie went to the previous night. Joe puts "Moonlight Mile" on the jukebox and Bertie dances with him. Joe convinces Ben to let him talk to the bar's owner to convince them to sell. Feeling trapped at the Floss home, he meets Bertie and tells her about Diana. He confesses to her that he had split up with Diana three days before she was killed. Bertie tells Joe about her boyfriend, the owner of the bar, who is lost in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
.
One night Joe sneaks out the window to go see Bertie again. They sleep together, and he leaves the next morning, slipping back into Diana's house through the window. Jojo is sitting in the room, drinking, knowing that he was out seeing another woman, and saddened by the idea that she had always known he would have never ended up with her daughter. She does not want Joe to leave, as they have formed a bond.
Joe goes to dinner at the Mulcahey's, where Mike's wife presumes aloud that Joe was not still tied up with thoughts of his fiancee's murder. Joe states that this is not the case, upsetting the mood at the dinner table. Mike calls Ben and ends their deal.
Bertie confronts Joe about what happened between them, and they have an argument in which he tells her no one believes her boyfriend is coming home and that she deserved better anyway. She leaves, upset.
The family attends the trial of Diana's murderer. However, the murderer's wife elicits sympathy from the jury, and the prosecutor, Mona Camp, asks Joe to testify and help the jury gain sympathy for Diana. While on the witness stand, Joe confesses that he and Diana had broken up prior to her death, and had not told her parents. Ben and Jojo are happy with the confession and gain closure. Joe symbolically writes 75 letters expressing his newfound clarity about what course his life ought to take and his love for Bertie, and places them in mailboxes around town, hoping that one will get to her.
Ben closes the shop, Jojo resumes her writing career, Bertie sells the bar, and she and Joe leave town.
Cast
*
Jake Gyllenhaal
Jacob Benjamin Gyllenhaal (; ; born December 19, 1980) is an American actor. Born into the Gyllenhaal family, he is the son of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner, and his older sister is actress Maggie Gyllenhaal. He beg ...
as Joe Nast
*
Dustin Hoffman
Dustin Lee Hoffman (born August 8, 1937) is an American actor and filmmaker. As one of the key actors in the formation of New Hollywood, Hoffman is known for his versatile portrayals of antiheroes and emotionally vulnerable characters. He is ...
as Ben Floss
*
Susan Sarandon
Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...
as Jojo Floss
*
Ellen Pompeo
Ellen Kathleen Pompeo (; born November 10, 1969) is an American actress. She is best known for her role on ''Grey's Anatomy'' as the titular Dr. Meredith Grey. One of the world's highest-paid actors since 2017, she has made multiple appearances ...
as Bertie Knox
*
Holly Hunter
Holly Patricia Hunter (born March 20, 1958) is an American actress. For her performance as Ada McGrath in the 1993 drama film '' The Piano'', Hunter won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She earned three additional Academy Award nominations for ...
as Mona Camp
*
Dabney Coleman
Dabney Wharton Coleman (born January 3, 1932) is an American actor.
Coleman's best known films include ''9 to 5'' (1980), '' On Golden Pond'' (1981), ''Tootsie'' (1982), '' WarGames'' (1983), '' Cloak & Dagger'' (1984), ''The Beverly Hillbillies ...
as Mike Mulcahey
*
Careena Melia
Careena Melia is an Irish-American actress.
Early life and education
Melia was born in Galway, Ireland and moved to Massachusetts when she was five years old. A student of ballet, she trained at Walnut Hill School, Boston Ballet, the Central ...
as Diana Floss
*
Roxanne Hart
Roxanne Hart (born July 27, 1952) is an American actress, best known for her roles as Brenda Wyatt in the 1986 film ''Highlander'', and as Nurse Camille Shutt on the CBS medical drama series ''Chicago Hope'' (1994–1998). Hart has also received ...
as June Mulcahey
*
Richard T. Jones
Richard Timothy Jones (born January 16, 1972) is an American actor. He has worked extensively in both film and television productions since the early 1990s. His television roles include '' Ally McBeal'' (1997), '' Judging Amy'' (1998–2005), '' ...
as Ty
*
Alexia Landeau as Cheryl
Reception
Box office
The film grossed $10,011,050 worldwide from a $21,000,000. budget.
Critical reception
''Moonlight Mile'' received mixed reviews from critics. The review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, gave the film a 63% approval rating out of 149 reviews. The site's consensus states: "Though the story feels rather contrived, ''Moonlight Mile'' is redeemed by the good performances of its cast."
Soundtrack
The ''Moonlight Mile'' soundtrack was released September 24, 2002 by
Sony Records.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Moonlight Mile (Film)
2002 films
2002 romantic drama films
American romantic drama films
Films directed by Brad Silberling
Films set in 1973
Films shot in California
Films shot in Massachusetts
Hyde Park Entertainment films
Touchstone Pictures films
Films about grieving
Films scored by Mark Isham
Films with screenplays by Brad Silberling
2000s English-language films
2000s American films