Closer To The Moon

2015

Closer To The Moon

Critics Consensus

No consensus yet.

Closer To The Moon Photos

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Movie Info

A band of Romanian freedom fighters pull the crime of the century in this gripping heist film based on an incredible true story. Bucharest, 1959: with anti-Semitism on the rise, a group of Jewish WWII resistance members, led by a police inspector (The Imitation Game's Mark Strong) and an academic (Academy Award-nominee Vera Farmiga), reteam for an audacious act of political agitation. Posing as a movie crew, they hold up the Romanian National Bank by making it look like a film shoot. But what comes next is even more unbelievable when the group is handed down a punishment as outlandish as their crime. Game of Thrones' Harry Lloyd co-stars in this slyly comic satire ripped from the strange-but-true pages of history.

Rating:

NR
Genre:

Drama
Directed By:

Nae Caranfil
Written By:

Nae Caranfil
In Theaters:

Apr 17, 2015 limited
On Disc/Streaming:

Sep 14, 2015
Runtime:

110 minutes
Studio:

IFC Films

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Cast

Vera Farmiga
as Alice

Christian McKay
as Iorgu

Joe Armstrong
as Razvan

Harry Lloyd
as Virgil

Martin Hancock
as Prosecutor

Mark Strong (II)
as Max Rosenthal

Anton Lesser
as Holban

Andrew Buckley
as Gogo

Allan Corduner
as Flaviu

Monica Barladeanu
as Sonia

John Henshaw
as Judge

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Critic Reviews for Closer To The Moon

All Critics (13) | Top Critics (4) | Fresh (6) | Rotten (7)

It's always a pleasure to see Mark Strong in a lead role -- too often he's wasted as baddies and bosses. In Closer to the Moon he gets his most interesting part in a while.

Nov 12, 2015 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Ed Potton
Times (UK)
Top Critic
There are a lot of moving moments in this film, and it's to writer-director Nae Caranfil's credit that he's able to tease out the logic in this mostly enjoyable, if a little all-over-the-place, dark comedy.

Apr 17, 2015 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Jordan Hoffman
Guardian
Top Critic
"Closer to the Moon" draws on many of the same facts that appear in "The Great Communist Bank Robbery," but in the service of a less adventurous movie with familiar Western actors, English-language dialogue and badly strained uplift.

Apr 16, 2015 | Full Review…

Manohla Dargis
New York Times
Top Critic
From Romania, of all places, comes a breath of fresh air, far above the usual action film Hollywood keeps churning out with pointless abandon.

Apr 15, 2015 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Rex Reed
Observer
Top Critic
All the major facts of Moon are historically accurate, but the reasons behind the events remain a bit murky. However, Caranfil's speculations are more than persuasive.

May 20, 2016 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Joe Bendel
Epoch Times
The story is so quintessentially Romanian, it had better been made in Romanian, with Romanian actors.

Nov 12, 2015 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

David Aldridge
Radio Times
Caranfil's unlikely, odd little film is quietly moving - all the more so because it is true.

Nov 12, 2015 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Nev Pierce
Empire Magazine
It has some moments that effectively convey the weirdness with which it deals; but for the most part it's a missed opportunity, marred by a lack of narrative conviction and tonal cohesion.

Nov 9, 2015 | Rating: 2/5 | Full Review…

Hannah McGill
The List
Closer to the Moon is an unremarkable reenactment of a remarkable story.

Apr 24, 2015 | Rating: 3.5/10 | Full Review…

Sarah Winshall
Under the Radar
A provocative, darkly comedic, absurdist drama - based on a true story.

Apr 20, 2015 | Rating: 7/10 | Full Review…

Susan Granger
SSG Syndicate
Although based on a true story, 'Closer to the Moon' comes across on screen as artificial and befuddling. However, quality production values make it easy on the eyes.

Apr 19, 2015 | Full Review…

Betty Jo Tucker
ReelTalk Movie Reviews
Caranfil, who's made several previous features in Romanian, struggles throughout to find the right tone, mostly in vain.

Apr 15, 2015 | Rating: 2.5/5 | Full Review…

Mike D'Angelo
The Dissolve

View All Critic Reviews (13)

Audience Reviews for Closer To The Moon

Apr 27, 2015

"Closer to the Moon" starts with Virgil(Harry Lloyd, of TV's "Manhattan") watching a film shoot of a bank heist in Bucharest in 1959. This inspires him to pursue a career in filmmaking, first as an assistant, then as a cameraman. He learns what he witnessed was in fact a bank robbery when he films the five bank robbers being sentenced to death who then congratulate each other. And then he is assigned to help make a propaganda film of their crime, starring the criminals themselves. That sequence of events begins with Max Rosenthal(Mark Strong), the local police commander, having his well-connected wife Sonia(Monica Barladeanu) being arrested on trumped up charges so he can party with his less connected friends on New Year's Eve 1958. Enter Alice(Vera Farmiga). Itself based on a true story, "Closer to the Moon" is in general concerned with the separation of truth from propaganda in a repressive system.(According the end note, the propaganda film of these events still exists. So maybe as a DVD extra?) Overall, this is a bittersweet movie that while it has the lighter touches of a caper story, also does not ignore the darker realities of these characters who once partisans for their country, now find themselves sidelined, with their careers in ruins. So for the first time in a long time they feel alive, and like before, ironically in the face of death.

Walter M Super Reviewer