WARNING: This review contains minor spoilers.
Moonlight Mile has a serious concept that is dealt with in a
realistic way. Writer/Director Brad Silberling makes the picture
feel this way because of his strong and opinionated point of
view on the material. He lets the characters stumble upon things
when he wants them to, and does this in the way he wants them
to; what makes a person a great filmmaker like he is, is when
they are able to put a movie together in their own way, even if
people don’t like what it is becoming. This is why this film has
been getting two types of criticism, that from those who love it
to death, and that from those who hate it to death.
Moonlight Mile is something you either like or you dislike,
and is hard to have so-so feelings for. The emotions that it
puts out are very controversial, and are only accepted by those
who are open-minded about its material. I loved just about
everything and every idea that it gave off, and it was the most
enriching time I’ve had at the moves in this entire year. The
great story is lit up by wonderful performances from all of the
actors, beautiful direction and production, and its realistic
approach towards questionable topics.
Joe Nast
(Jake Gyllenhaal) is the most emotionally mixed up person in the
universe after his fiancé is killed in a restaurant. He is
temporarily staying at her parents’ (Dustin Hoffman and Susan
Sarandon) house, for the period of time that funerals and
mourning are performed. All three are stressed but all in
different ways. His would-be mother in law, JoJo Floss (Susan
Sarandon), hates when people ask about the death, and just wants
for them to stop bothering her, and undergo their own individual
grieving processes. Ben Floss (Dustin Hoffman) feels like he
must fitfully serve everyone’s individual needs, he answers
every one of the countless phone calls from friends and family
to offer sympathy, and comforts anyone and everyone who mentions
the death. He is so caught up in the emotions of everyone else;
he doesn’t even have time to mourn the death of his own
daughter. Joe (Gyllenhaal) is confused and traumatized by
something very different from his future wife’s parents though.
He is hiding a secret that will be taken by everyone else very
harshly. Three days before she died, he and his fiancé broke up,
but he doesn’t have the guts to tell.
Have you
ever seen Dustin Hoffman smile as hard as he can? If so, you
know that it’s impossible to not do the same back at him as
well. Whenever he smiled in this movie, it was so broad and
giant that I couldn’t help but crack one afterwards. His
character, Ben Floss, was surprisingly down to earth and I saw
where he was coming from, and was able to perfectly picture his
need to please everyone and everything he came across. The way
he chose to show Ben’s emotions is something you don’t see
everyday in film, a clear explanation of what popularity means
to adults. He tries to busy himself, in order to avoid
confrontation with the subject of his daughter dying, but when
he does come across it in the most hardest of ways, he has no
choice but to let his emotions take control of him. For example,
when trying to find more evidence about her death, in order to
get the killer the biggest sentence possible; he walks into the
restaurant she was murdered in. He asks the clerk which seat his
daughter was sitting in when murdered, she breaks down in tears
and responds “The sixth from the left,” he stares at the
old-style stool, and then breaks down. This is not caused by the
many feelings he has for his daughter, but by his tremendous
need of closure on the subject and his fear of confronting the
topic head-on. As an actor, the performance was crystal clear,
and proves that age is not a factor in the movie business.
Susan Sarandon has been excellent in her character choices
over the last year. In The Banger Sisters, she
plays the groupie turned control freak, Lavina, here she plays
the psychologically grieving mother, JoJo, and I won’t even get
into her character in Igby Goes Down. This movie
lets her exercise the extremely talented way she goes about
theater and filmmaking. JoJo Floss is a woman who hates the
people who want to help her grieve, but would hate them even
more if they weren’t there. She is undecided in every choice she
makes, and strangely feels sympathy for her daughter’s killer at
times in the film. She feels as though she must be emotionally
self-governed, but doesn’t have the strength inside to do so.
She wants to be alone, and even feels suicidal at times, but her
real feelings about relationships and love shine through in the
few moments that she is truly happy. Though JoJo is trapped, the
world still feels open to her, mostly because of this recent
death she feels uncomforted. To accomplish these most abstract
of feelings and emotions, Sarandon had to take chances, and
really reach out on a limb; but in the end everything worked
out, and like Hoffman, put on one of the best performances of
the year.
I find
Jake Gyllenhaal to be about the most likable guy in the industry
today. He plays all of the out-there, mixed up type characters;
but somehow still seems to be one of the kindest of individuals.
In an interview, Dustin Hoffman stated that Gyllenhaal would
often space out and miss the simplest of lines such as “ya” and
“uhuh”, but nail the hardest of lines. I find this to be quite
amusing, because by his cover Jake looks like he would be one of
the worst actors on the planet, he has messy hair, a rumpled
face, and a lazy look to him; but he really is one of the best
new-comers to the business. In Moonlight Mile,
The Good Girl, and Lovely and Amazing
he was able to create the most colorful and ingenious characters
ever seen before. In this film, he even outshined Hoffman and
Sarandon put together in some scenes! He plays the confused Joe
who has a strong battle with the truth, in a more simply put “to
be or not to be” type situation. I can’t say much about the
struggles that he undergoes, because in order to do so, I would
be giving away some major plot developments. All I will say is
that he was extraordinary, as was the cast as a whole. There is
not one flawed performance in the flicks entirety that I can
think of off of the top of my head.
To some
readers, this comment will be persistently annoying, but I just
have to mention it; but first I must give you a little
background information. My history teacher obsesses over post-it
notes and treats them like they are god. Everything he marks,
presents, or simply wants to make colorful is covered in post-it
notes; he thinks they are a removable alternative to
highlighters! This is probably why I find this aspect shown in
Moonlight Mile so funny. The post-it was not
created until the 1980’s, and its invention was admittedly a
mistake (they were meant to have strong adhesive on the back,
not non-stick, glue-like material). This movie was set in the
fifties, which I can tell just by its look and feel, yet
Sarandon’s character has post-its all over her office wall. This
is not possible! They weren’t invented until afterwards! I think
I’ll baffle old Mr. Fisher with some good post-it trivia
tomorrow! I think that’s exactly what I’ll do…Teach the
“history” of the post-it notes.
To
conclude my review, I would like to make it clear that
Moonlight Mile is by far the best movie so far this year.
Three killer performances from Susan Sarandon, Jake Gyllenhaal,
and Dustin Hoffman make it the most worthwhile experience you’ll
have at the movies for a long time. The in-depth character
analysis is both intelligent and deeply touching, because of its
well-written and logical scripting. Brad Silberling provided
some of the best direction, production, and screenwriting that
any one-man-band type filmmaker has done for a long while.
Everything was right one. This film should be seen multiple
times, but more importantly should be seen by you, the reader,
now.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews