It's sentimental, and some viewers may feel manipulated by the melodramatic final act, but The Man in the Moon offers a finely drawn coming-of-age story with an excellent cast -- including Reese Witherspoon in her film debut.
It's sentimental, and some viewers may feel manipulated by the melodramatic final act, but The Man in the Moon offers a finely drawn coming-of-age story with an excellent cast -- including Reese Witherspoon in her film debut.
In its elegiac nostalgia for the days of childhood innocence, Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon recalls another of Mulligan's earlier films, To Kill A Mockingbird. Set in a Louisiana backwater town in the 1950s, the film chronicles the coming-of-age of a young teenage girl. Dani (Reese Witherspoon) is a fourteen-year-old girl who shares a room with her seventeen-year-old sister Maureen (Emily Warfield). During hot summer nights, they sleep on the screened-in back porch of their home, talking
about romance, the future, and the meaning of life. Moving into the house next door is a handsome seventeen-year-old boy, Court Foster (Jason London). Court meets Dani at the local swimming hole and they are immediately attracted to each other; through Court, Dani experiences her first true and perfect love. But when Court meets Maureen, the sparks really fly and Maureen falls in love with him too. Now Maureen is torn between holding back her love for Court or accepting his love and betraying her sister. A tragic event makes Maureen's mind up for her. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
Gets an outstandingly natural performance out of Miss Witherspoon, who has no trouble carrying a lot of the film single-handedly. It falls to her to remind the audience that this story is at heart about a family, and she does.
Mulligan uses a delicate touch in revealing the confusion in growing up and the loss in discovering that the world isn't as simple or perfect as children believe it to be.
This cast is a knock-out. As the parents, veterans Sam Waterston, Tess Harper and Gail Strickland lead these novice teen actors in setting standards that these young performers will spend the rest of their careers trying to emulate.
A touching, sweet-natured coming-of-age story set in a more innocent time, "The Man in the Moon" boasts sensitive direction and superb performances, even when the script occasionally falters.
Robert Mulligan directs this story with all the sensitivity he can muster. And sensitivity is certainly what the plot needs, since it is perilously close to being a trashy Southern passions sort of melodrama.
Reese Witherspoons first movie I beleive. Sam Waterson shines as the father, Jason London also does well. This is a tear jerker film of the upteenth degree but as others have said, this is a story about sisters and true love. Its a beautiful tale and well told. If you have never seen this your missing out.
For a kid's movie, a surprisingly non-cheesy but still warming story with wonderful pastoral images. Grass and Elvis makes me melt. Reese emerged as an actress well-aware of the nuances and intonations necessary to shoot this role to the next level. It sucks that this preteen role is more edgy than any Four Christmases
crap she's relegated to now. PS. I'm glad Jason London at least got to have sex before the accident.
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