With all that talk about the supermoon earlier this week, there was really only one choice for this week’s fine romance: Norman Jewison’s 1987 romantic comedy Moonstruck. Yes, the one with Cher and Nicolas Cage.
It’s about a widow (Cher; yes, really) whose life is finally turning around. She’s engaged to a man who, while she doesn’t love him, is nice. When he goes to Sicily to be with his dying mother, she agrees to try to patch things over with his estranged brother (Cage). He, it turns out, is not nice at all, but not nice in that alpha, bad boy “my hand was cut off by a bread slicer” way (I’m still not making any of this up). They end up having a torrid affair and going to Lincoln Center to see La Boheme. As people do.
There are subplots involving Cher’s family, etc., but really, all I can say to recommend this film to you is that enjoying it is entirely about suspending your disbelief and letting your emotions sweep you away. It’s ridiculous and over-the-top and somehow, that’s precisely how it tells the truth.
If it’s not obvious, I really love Moonstruck. If you haven’t seen it, or haven’t seen it in a while, my recommendation for tonight is Moonstruck, Chianti, Puccini, and many, many carbs.
Emma Barry 