Cheap The Man in the Moon (DVD) (Sam Waterston, Tess Harper) (Robert Mulligan) Price

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Customer Reviews of The Man in the Moon

MULLIGAN DOES IT AGAIN
As he did with To Kill A Mockingbird, which is oe of the most eloquent and moving coming-of-age movies ever made, director Richard Mulligan again paints a subtle and heartbreaking portrait of a young girl growing up. This film takes you by surprise, and engages you in a candid, fresh and charming way. Reese Witherspoon is guileless, and perfect as the heroine; Sam Waterston, in his usual well-crafted way, gives the father a gravity, dignity and grace that Atticus Finch, the lawyer father in Mockingbird, would be proud of. The love story, which provides the film its core plot, tenderly examines from nearly every viewpoint -- familial and otherwise -- the joys and heartaches of that first rush of emotion that overtakes us all at some point in our youth. The watering-hole sequences have such a simple yet intense quality that you are transported back to your own fumblings with affection and those crushes that crippled your vision of the world for as long as they lasted. This movie deserved a much wider audience when it first appeared, but I have kind of loved the fact that it remains one of those special gifts you can give that will continue to give once its viewer takes the time to unlock its secrets. I have introduced this movie to countless friends and family, and no one -- and I do mean no one -- has not loved every minute.

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A Beautiful Film
This poignant story is one of the most beautiful coming of age portraits ever filmed. It is set in rural Louisiana during the 1950's and is beautifully photographed and filled with love and tenderness. The focal point of director Robert Mulligan's (To Kill a Mockingbird, Summer of '42) story is a very young Reese Witherspoon in a role that should have made her a household name. This story of first love and the tragedy that follows will touch you in a way you'll remember for a long time.

Sam Waterson is perfect as the gentle and kind husband and father Matthew who knows his two daughters are growing up faster than he can blink and has another one on the way. Tess Harper has another fine turn as his loving wife Abigail. There is a sweet and peaceful feel to this film that gets into your heart slowly in much the same manner as "The Spitfire Grill". It is that good.

Dani (Reese Witherspoon) is the spunky but tender hearted younger sister who is beginning to cross the waters from kid to young woman at 14. Her adolescent crush on Elvis changes to something real when 17 year old Court Foster (Jason London) enters the picture. They both like to swim in the lake and become something more than friends but something less than a couple. Their relationship is handled in such a sweet and thoughtful manner you find youself embracing this film with your heart early on.

But as much as Court cares about her she is to young for him and when chance brings he and her older sister Maureen (Emily Wakefield) together nature takes it's course and someone's heart is bound to break. This is a good and loving family and Dani and her older sister Maureen are close. They bicker as sisters do but Dani secretly worships Maureen and wants to be like her. Maureen loves Dani just as much but can't pass up the love of her life no matter how hard she might try.

Court is also prtrayed as a very decent kid with the weight of the world on his shoulders who is trying to do the right thing and still be happy. Everthing about this feels real as there are no good guys and bad guys, just a truthful portrait of young love and growing up. Witherspoon is amazing and you can truly feel her heart breaking as she begins to disappear, only her memories of the lake and her first kiss to comfort her.

It will take even more than a tragedy to bring Dani and Maureen back together and it is the wise and gentle father who takes Dani fishing and talks to her in a way every father hopes he will talk to his daughter under similar circumstances. Everyone is wonderful in this fine film and I am amazed it is not more widely known. It is truly something special.

I can not reveal what happens in the last part of this film but at the beginning we find Dani and Maureen talking on their front porch about 'The Man in the Moon'. Their mother always told them when they were young to tell their troubles to 'The Man on the Moon' and just keep talking untill they were all gone. Both Dani and Maureen discover when things are bleakest that 'The Man in the Moon' is truly each other.

This film is warm, sweet, and heartrending. It is a wonderful find and different from just about anything else you will see on the subject matter. It is a film you'll want to own and watch over and over. Pick this one up today....

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amazing and beyond words
This is my favourite film of all time and I don't think any film can compete with this masterpeice.

As a fourteen year old myself, I understood right off where Dani's character was coming from and how she was feeling. At the same time I also understood how Maureen was feeling as well (but not as much as I felt for dani).

The story takes place in a beautiful setting in 1957 in louisiana in the country during the summer.When a neighbour, court foster moves near dani and maureen's house the two sisters both awfully close at the start of the movie, start riviling over a boy and aren't close at all afterwards.
Then after something very terrible happens and brings me to tears each time I watch it during the last half hour, the two sisters realize no mater what happens they still are sisters and must love each other.

My favourite scene in the entire film and makes me break down and cry each time and I watch this movie a lot, is the graveyard scene.
[it's REALLY hard not to contain spoilers for this scene and I'm going to tell a few]
The scene is where dani is walking from the pond to go to ____'s grave and she sees from a distance, maureen holding flowers about to put them down near the gravestone and as just as she reaches over to place them she starts sobbing and coallapses onto the dirt and we see dani forming tears into her eyes. Then she walks over to maureen and despite saying she will never forgive her she sits down near maureen lifts her head onto her lap and starts rubbing her back saying "it's okay" and tears are falling off of her face. Maureen bawls into dani's lap.
That scene does it for me and is the emotional trigger for the entire film.