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Dec 08, 2020 Web Exclusive By Austin Trunick

Loretta Castorini (Cher) is middle-aged and widowed. Firmly believing that her husband’s accidental death was due to her being unlucky in love, she’s put little effort into seeking new love – instead, living day-to-day working as a bookkeeper to the many small businesses in the Brooklyn neighborhood where she still lives with her family. She rather unexcitedly says to Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), a nice guy from around the block, when he proposes marriage; she openly admits she doesn’t love him, but they’d make an okay match. But when he returns to Sicily to visit his dying mother, she meets his estranged, emotionally unhinged brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage), and falls desperately in love.

It’s hard to imagine how John Patrick Shanley’s screenplay was written without Nicolas Cage’s character, Ronny Cammareri, described as “a Nicolas Cage-type.” After thirty-plus years of watching him over-act to his greatest ability, it feels like this damaged, passionate, opera-obsessed outsider – with a wooden hand (!) – was tooled to his very specific wheelhouse. (Moonstruck landed for Cage between Raising Arizona and the batty Vampire’s Kiss.) There are roles for which Cage feels weirdly appropriate, and the rare ones where he feels perfectly-cast; this is one of the latter.

A really good Nicolas Cage performance comes within a film that’s full of great ones. As the ever-wary Loretta, Cher is semi-neurotic while endearingly down-to-earth; her very likeable leading role is one of the three in the film that received Oscar nominations. Vincent Gardenia gives a loveable, Best Supporting Actor-nominated performance as Loretta’s philandering father; Olympia Dukakis, who plays her mother, gives a more touching turn, and actually took home the Best Supporting Actress statuette.

Moonstruck’s screenplay is its real star, however. Shanley’s script is witty and quotable, and makes both the Castorinis and Cammareris recognizable as realistic – if exaggerated – families. Most of all, it’s sweet; even the adultery is handled in a way that’s ultimately (and surprisingly) heartwarming. Director Norman Jewison makes great use of the film’s ‘80s New York setting at Christmastime; while it’s not exclusively a holiday film, it makes for great seasonal viewing.

It’s nice to see a classic, modern rom-com enter the Criterion Collection; like The Princess Bride and Breakfast Club before it, the cable staple Moonstruck seems a little out of place at first among their predominantly Golden Age Hollywood, arthouse, and foreign fare, but it’s a highly welcome addition to the prestigious line. Accompanying the 4K restoration are all-new interviews with Shanley and opera expert Stefano Albertini, as well as a long list of supplements retained from older releases of the film, many of which include the director and primary cast.

(www.criterion.com/films/29154-moonstruck)