Review of Moonstruck (1987)
Seen in 2015.
A study in Hollywood romanticism using simple characters who are transparent even to one another: Italian-American stereotypes derived from the days of open racism against Italian immigrants. They clean up nice when you remove the organized crime and make a rather improbable combination out of the posturing, low-class, high-maintenance “guido” and the noble, high-class opera lover. Notice how the knee-jerk negativity of the first act is dropped to pave the way for a happy ending. Tellingly, no realistic answer is ever given to Rose’s questions of why men chase women: That would break the “feel-good” Hollywood spell. One of Cage’s least poor performances, but even Cher is better.