Moonlight and Valentino

''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, is based on her semi-autobiographical play of the same title, written after the death of her husband.

Production

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."

"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." "

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 fourteen years earlier; her best friend Sylvie Morrow, who is trapped in an unhappy marriage to Paul; 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".

Cast

* Elizabeth Perkins as Rebecca Lott
* Gwyneth Paltrow as Lucy Trager
* Kathleen Turner as Alberta Russell
* Whoopi Goldberg as Sylvie Morrow
* Shadia Simmons as Jenny Morrow
* Erica Luttrell as Drew Morrow
* Matthew Koller as Alex Morrow
* Scott Wickware as Policeman
* Kelli Fox as Nurse
* Harrison Liu as Mr. Wong
* Wayne Lam as Mr. Wong's Son
* Ken Wong as Mr. Wong's Father
* Carlton Watson as Henrik
* Jack Jessop as Sid
* Josef Sommer as Thomas Trager
* Jon Bon Jovi as The Painter
* David Trim as Valentino
* Jeremy Sisto as Steven
* Alan Clifton as Street Vendor
* Judah Katz as Marc
* Julian Richings as Hair Stylist
* Peter Coyote as Paul

Critical reception

The film earned mostly negative reviews from critics. It holds a 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 13 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10.

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.

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."

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 . . . ndto 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."

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."

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."

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

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."

Marjorie Baumgarten at austinchronicle.com said: "Too many paths of emotional discovery are embarked upon without delivering any true sense of arrival or even destination."

Jeanne Aufmuth at 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."

References

External links

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{{David Anspaugh

1995 films
American comedy-drama films
1995 comedy-drama films
Working Title Films films
American films based on plays
1990s English-language films
American female buddy films
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films
Films scored by Howard Shore
Films directed by David Anspaugh
Films produced by Eric Fellner
Films produced by Tim Bevan
Films produced by Alison Owen
British comedy-drama films
British films based on plays
1990s female buddy films
British female buddy films
Canadian comedy-drama films
1990s American films
1990s Canadian films
1990s British films