Firstly, any movie that starts off with Dean Martin singing "That's Amore" over the opening credits and featuring various shots around New York City is bound to be off to a great start. "Moonstruck" is a romantic comedy, released in 1987 and directed by Norman Jewison ("Fiddler on the Roof"). It stars Cher, Nicolas Cage, Vincent Gardenia, Olympia Dukakis, and Danny Aiello. The film went on to win three Academy Awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress (Cher), and Best Supporting Actress (Olympia Dukakis). Cher is Loretta Castorini. She is in her late 30s, widowed, and engaged to marry again. She believes that her first husband died so early because the whole relationship was full of bad luck. She wants to make sure everything is perfect in her next marriage, to Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello). Perfect, in this case involves Loretta getting into a relationship, and eventually falling in love with her fiance's younger brother, Ronny, while Johnny is in Italy seeing his dying mother. This naturally puts the two of them in quite a predicament. Vincent Gardenia and Olympia Dukakis play Loretta's parents. The cast is phenomenal. Everyone had chemistry with everyone and each actor just brought so much to their roles. Cher and Olympia Dukakis earned their awards that year, although I really can't judge, since I don't know who they were up against. Their scenes together are among my favorites in the movie. These two fine actresses (yes, believe it or not Cher is an actress, and a darn good one at that...she's just that multi-talented) played characters that each were dealing with infidelity in different ways among other things, which just made the characters very rich and textured...two very odd words to use to describe human beings. I usually don't like Nicolas Cage all that much, but I did like his performance in "Moonstruck," despite the age difference between him and Cher and the fact that their on screen relationship happened rapid-fire, which I guess is to be expected from a romantic comedy. I usually despise romantic comedies, especially nowadays, with the main exception being "The Proposal." "Moonstruck," however is one of the very best of the genre. And in my opinion second best only after "When Harry Met Sally..." "Moonstruck" has a great cast who were given a incredibly well constructed, funny script. The lines seem to flow naturally from the actors mouths and there are several genuinely funny lines, nothing feels forced or cheesy in any way. So essentially what I am getting at: "Moonstruck" is a extremely solid, intelligent, highly entertaining/funny movie. I completely recommend it. Especially if you like the cast or romantic comedies in general. Oh, and you get to hear one of the top 101 best movies lines of all time..."Snap out of it!" -Joseph Sbrilli
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