The Criterion Collection Invites You to be ‘Moonstruck’ All Over Again (BLU-RAY REVIEW)

Whither the romcom?

That stalwart of cinema, which has propelled film since the early days of the medium, has fallen on hard times in recent years. What was once a delightful genre that catapulted actors and actresses to superstardom has gone into a state of hibernation. These days, it’s hard to find a truly original romantic comedy, or even a romantic comedy that has anything of particular importance to say. Now, it’s just the same old gags and same old clichés, recycled and reconfigured over and over again without much of an impact.

Which isn’t to say there aren’t exceptions. The last 20 years has given us more than a few romcoms of note, like Love Actually or The Big Sick, which do recall the glory days of the genre and remind us all why we love romantic comedies to begin with. But still, those tend to be the exceptions. For the most part, studios tend to design romcoms to be forgettable place holders, something people can watch for a while and promptly erase from their memory.

Given how rare it is for a romantic comedy these days to make much of a splash in the wider world of movies and filmmaking, it’s fair to ponder that we might not see another film like Moonstruck for a long, long time.

It’s been 33 years since the Norman Jewison classic first hit screens, and in that time Moonstruck has never waned. It feels as fresh today as it did in 1987, and perhaps somehow even more deserving of the three Oscars it won—Best Actress for Cher, Best Supporting Actress for Olympia Dukakis, and Best Original Screenplay for John Patrick Shanley—and perhaps even for the Oscars it lost, including Best Picture, which went to the deserving The Last Emperor.

Deserving though The Last Emperor might have been, it’s hard to deny that its impact has fallen over the decades while Moonstruck has, if anything, only grown. Truth is that Moonstruck is a result of just the right confluence of minds, from legendary director Jewison to playwright Shanley, that it landed perfectly within the zeitgeist and made a lasting impacting. Most importantly, unlike so many modern romcoms, Moonstruck had something to say. Not just about love, but about life and family.

Cher stars as Loretta Castorini, a widowed 40-something living at home and searching for something more. In the film’s opening moments she becomes engaged to Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), who has to fly back to Sicily to take care of his dying mother. In the interim, Loretta is tasked with planning the wedding, including inviting Johnny’s estranged brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) in the hopes of burying the hatchet. Plans change, however, when Loretta falls head over heels for Ronny, throwing her plans and life into disarray.

A simple enough set up for a romcom, but Shanley’s script is interested in so much more than the burgeoning will they/won’t they of Loretta and Ronny. From the very outset, Shanley understands that the essence of the romantic comedy is in the fairy tale. In the real world, we know that love is hard to find and harder still to hold. That any of us ever get married is a minor miracle, to say nothing of staying married. And so there’s an element of magic laced throughout the script that cannot be ignored.

The magic, of course, is the magic that exists between people, regardless of their relationships. Moonstruck is every bit the family drama as it is the romcom, and the love triangle between Loretta, Johnny, and Ronny makes up only a small percentage of the film. Much of the film focuses on the relationship between Loretta and her parents (Dukakis and Vincent Gardenia) and between Loretta and New York City.

From there, Shanley is able to concoct an over the top fairy tale that speaks to the modern desire for connection. Loretta, who is content to settle for Johnny because he’s a nice man, is helpless against the impassioned Ronny. Loretta and Ronny are flawed in broken in ways that make them perfectly complementary. Who can forget Ronny’s absurd introduction at the bakery?

It’s the perfect prototype for the kind of unhinged, manic performances for which Cage would soon become known. Bizarre though it is, with Cage screaming at his wooden hand, it’s infused with an over the top pathos that echoes the stage.

Jewison, as is pointed out numerous times on the new special edition of Moonstruck available now from the Criterion Collection, saw Shanley’s script for what it was: a fairytale with operatic scope. In fact, the works of Giacomo Puccini play an important role in setting the tone and feel of the film, and one of the film’s emotional climaxes occurs at a staging of Puccini’s La Boheme.

The operatic parallels run throughout Moonstruck and are, indeed, an essential part of its DNA. The film, like opera, exists in a state of heightened reality, one that’s recognizable as our own but just a little bit more fantastic. We forgive the implications of magic, no matter how slight, in this world because it serves as an accurate reflection of how we wish the world would be.

Rewatching the film on the new 4K transfer from Criterion, it’s easy to see how and why the world fell in love with Moonstruck back in 1987. For all its absurdity, there’s a real earnestness in its depiction of humanity and the heart. As ever, Criterion has loaded the release with tons of special features—commentaries, featurettes, interviews—that take you deeper inside the movie and offer a unique insight into the film’s tremendous legacy.

And it’s a legacy that belies the notion that the romcom is a dead or dying genre. It’s hard to believe that Hollywood has so readily given up on the romcom and allowed the vacuum in which mindless fodder is proliferate. Watching Moonstruck today, especially looking as great as it does here on this release, is a reminder that romantic comedies don’t need to cater to the lowest common denominator or rely on cute gimmicks to succeed. There was a time, not so long ago, when they were among the best films made in a given year. Or, in the case of Moonstruck, one of the best films made of all time.

Moonstruck is now available from the Criterion Collection.