Moonstruck

Moonstruck (1987), directed by Norman Jewison, is a warm-hearted romantic comedy that scored well both critically and at the box office. It was the fifth-highest-grossing film in America in 1987 and was nominated for six Academy Awards, earning the award for Best Screenplay, Best Actress (Cher) and Best Supporting Actress (Olympia Dukakis).

Although its success shows its wide appeal, the film is set in the New York Italian American community, using its trials and tribulations to speak universally of the human condition. Its veteran director had previously addressed issues of race and ethnicity in films such as In the Heat of the Night (1967) and Fiddler on the Roof (1971).

Moonstruck centers on complex affairs of the heart. Loretta Castorini (Cher) has recently become engaged to Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), but when Johnny goes to Sicily to see his dying mother, Loretta falls passionately in love with his younger brother, Ronny (Nicholas Cage). While she is at the opera with Ronny, her infidelity is matched by their encounter with her father, Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia), and his mistress, Mona (Anita Gillette). However, all is resolved the following morning. Cosmo promises his wife (Olympia Dukakis) that he will stop seeing Mona, and when Johnny returns unexpectedly from Sicily because his mother has made a miraculous recovery that he believes means that he must sacrifice his marriage plans, Loretta is able to accept Ronny's proposal. These romantic complexities are matched by relationships between time and place, past and present, New York and Italy, all of which are underscored by the film's plot as well as its use of casting, mise en scene, and soundtrack.

Moonstruck opens with an establishing shot of the Brooklyn Bridge but soon moves to Manhattan, where the New York Metropolitan Opera is preparing for a production of Puccini's La Bohème. Against this visual backdrop, the soundtrack plays Dean Martin's 1953 hit “That's Amore.” These few minutes capture and anticipate the film's multicultural themes. Crossing the Brooklyn Bridge has long been a symbol of aspiration to the Brooklyn-based Italian community, while the Met, with its logo of the American flag, is dependent upon international, including Italian, operas. “That's Amore” mingles its lyrics and title with Italian and English vocabulary. Moonstruck is set in both America and Italy, but it is neither Italian nor American, it is Italian American, as are its characters; they bring out the best of both countries to achieve something new, and it is implied that others may learn from that example. Moreover, both La Bohème and the moon, mentioned in “That's Amore” (“When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore”), are connective threads and motifs throughout.

Moonstruck is a true celebration of the Italian American experience and of its people's [Page 1487]achievements in the modern day. It is a strikingly positive portrayal; although some scenes are set in Sicily, there is no hint of the Mafia associations that so often stereotype Hollywood movies, and although Cosmo is a sharp and very successful businessman, there is no trace of criminality in any of the characters. Moreover, viewers see through the generations how adaptation has been made to American ways. Loretta's grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr.) still mainly speaks Italian with his elderly friends. Second-generation Cosmo has been able to build a lucrative plumbing business, while Rose is proud to have remained a traditional housewife. As a third-generation Italian American woman, Loretta has a professional career as an accountant and a feisty spirit; she is told by Ronny, “Playing safe is the most dangerous thing a woman like you can do.”

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