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Serious Moonlight

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Serious Moonlight (2009)

December. 04,2009
|
5.3
|
R
| Comedy Romance
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A high-powered attorney duct tapes her adulterous husband to the toilet ... right before their home is invaded by burglars.

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Reviews

Smartorhypo
2009/12/04

Highly Overrated But Still Good

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Curapedi
2009/12/05

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

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BelSports
2009/12/06

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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Hayden Kane
2009/12/07

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

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vincentlynch-moonoi
2009/12/08

Note to Justin Long: Dear Justin, I remember when you got started on "Ed" on television. I thought you had something, and still do. You've made some decent films (e.g., "He's Just Not That Into You"). And some stinkers...a few too many to mention...and that's true of this film. Let's be honest, as good an actor as you are, you're not the matinée movie idol type. So, to build your career, you have to be a bit selective as to parts you take on. In 2009, the year this movie was made, you made 10 movies...and a couple were pretty good. I've forgotten now which film it was that turned me off because from beginning to end it was just one long dialog with 4 letter words. And that's my point -- too many of your movies are forgotten already. And here's another one. In "Serious Moonlight" you have little screen time, and most of the time you're on screen you have a handkerchief masking your face. Your character never develops his character...at all. That's not too memorable. Why did you choose the role? I can't figure it out...and apparently few others could either since the film made less than $147,000 worldwide. Yes, Justin, when some pics are making way in excess of $147 million, your film made less than one-tenth of that. It lost money. And deservedly so. I like seeing you on screen, but I won't pay for a ticket to see a lot of the flops you're in. I guess it's just for a fast buck, huh? Now, in terms of the rest of this film. I really like Meg Ryan, and Timothy Hutton is okay. But I'm not sure a film where one of the stars is duct-taped into a chair or onto a toilet for nearly the entire 84 minutes is going to be very compelling. Especially when the other star is duct-taped for about a third of the film. Feels too much like a one-set stage play. And not a very interesting one, either. Yak, yak, yak, yak. Yawn. It had potential as a dark comedy...but that potential remained unfulfilled.Thumbs down.

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Argemaluco
2009/12/09

Serious Moonlight is an incredibly execrable movie which should be used in film schools as an example of how NOT to make a movie. I can assure you I am not pleased to say this, because I generally like the work of Cheryl Hines as a comedian, and I would have liked to find some positive elements in her debut as a director. Besides, this movie was written by Adrienne Shelly (1966-2006), a young filmmaker who was tragically murdered 5 years ago, and it seems unfair to posthumously speak against a screenplay which may needed various (better said, a lot of) revisions. Having said all that, I need to go back to the point: Serious Moonlight is an unbearable and repulsive disaster.I still remember the days in which Meg Ryan was considered the "queen of the chick-flicks". Her presence used to be the the indicator that an insipid romantic story was waiting for us, but her natural geniality could make some films from her filmography to be worthy of an at least slight recommendation (such as When a Man Loves a Woman and Kate & Leopold). What happened to her career? Sure, I perfectly understand that the time went by, and that she has now been replaced by younger actresses, such as Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway. However, I think Ryan is a competent actress, so it would not be impossible to see her in adult romances. Or, better yet, she could accept substantial and mature dramatic characters (like for example, the one she interpreted in Courage Under Fire). So...how did she end up in such an atrocious and cheap movie like Serious Moonlight? So, in conclusion, Serious Moonlight is a horrible movie which fails in every aspect, from its pathetic screenplay to its atrocious direction. I hope Hines will not direct a movie anymore, and that she will only keep working as an actress. As for Shelly...well, I will try to remember her only for the entertaining Waitress, which she had written and directed.

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edwagreen
2009/12/10

Really ashame that Adrien Shelly died so tragically in the prime of life. We are really so much the worse for her untimely horrible loss.This is a unique story of a marriage gone wrong and the wife's attempt to rescue it at any cost, even if that means taping her husband to a toilet seat.The main leads by Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton are absolutely terrific. They scream at each other, he throws up what has gone wrong in the marriage and she literally ties him down for fear of what her life will be like as a middle-age divorcée. The parts with the house being broken into and the girlfriend of Hutton being taken hostage as well by the thieves are beautifully realized.The ending is somewhat quirky. It's the way that Ryan recognizes the burglar, but quickly walks away from Hutton is most troubling. The expression on his face remains a daunting surprise and misunderstanding here.

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Roland E. Zwick
2009/12/11

When she is informed by her husband of thirteen years that he is leaving her for another woman, Louise does what every self-respecting woman in her position would do: she conks him over the head, duct-tapes him to a chair, and threatens to hold him prisoner till he comes to his senses. Thus, for an hour-and-a-half, we're forced to watch as two self-indulgent crybabies - one a cheat, the other a raving psychotic - thrash out the details of their relationship in a tone so grating and mean-spirited that before long we're ready to send in our own hostage-negotiating team just to bring an end to all of our suffering.Despite the presence of Meg Ryan, Tim Hutton, Kristen Bell and Justin Long in key roles, "Serious Moonlight," directed by Cheryl Hines and written by the late Adrienne Shelly (both of "Waitress" fame), is a hopelessly contrived, endlessly off-putting dark romantic comedy (a la "The War of the Roses," albeit without the courage of that film's ending) that, I guess, is supposed to be every cheated-on spouse's idea of the perfect wish-fulfillment revenge fantasy (even if the fantasy winds up going awry in the end). But the claustrophobic setting, the sadistic tone, and the sheer unpleasantness of it all make it an excruciating experience to sit through. At one point, Hutton seems to be speaking for the audience when he states, "It's like torture." That's about as astute an example of built-in self-criticism as I've ever come across in a movie.

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