A Walk on the Moon

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This article is about the 1999 film. For similar uses, see moonwalk (disambiguation).
A Walk on the Moon
Walk on the moon poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed byTony Goldwyn
Written byPamela Gray
Produced byJay Cohen
Tony Goldwyn
Lee Gottsegen
Dustin Hoffman
Neil Koenigsberg
Murray Schisgal
Starring
CinematographyAnthony B. Richmond
Edited byDana Congdon
Music byMason Daring
Production
company
Distributed byMiramax Films
Release date
  • 2 April 1999 (1999-04-02)
Running time
107 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Australia
LanguageEnglish
Budget$14 million
Box office$4,750,660

A Walk on the Moon is a 1999 drama film starring Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber and Anna Paquin. The film, which was set against the backdrop of the Woodstock festival of 1969 and the United States's Moon landing of that year, was distributed by Miramax Films. Directed by Tony Goldwyn (in his directorial debut), it was highly acclaimed on release. Diane Lane earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead for her performance.

Plot[]

Pearl Kantrowitz (Diane Lane) and her husband Marty (Liev Schreiber) are a lower middle class, Jewish couple in New York City, where he works as a television repairman. The movie opens as the couple and their family, including their teenage daughter Alison (Anna Paquin), their young son Danny, and Marty's mother Lillian (Tovah Feldshuh), depart for their annual summer camp in the Catskills at Dr. Fogler's Bungalows.

Having to stay in New York for work during the week, Marty sees his family only on weekends at the camp. Pearl feels lonely and isolated. She got pregnant at the age of 17 and quickly married Marty, and feels that she missed enjoying her youth. With Marty absent, Pearl is attracted to the handsome and free-spirited Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen). Meanwhile, Alison is neglected. She undergoes teenage passages by herself: her first period, her first date, and her first kiss, as she enters a relationship with Ross Epstein, a boy at the camp.

Marty is unable to visit the family because he has to repair more television sets than usual, as customers are anxious to be ready to see the impending Moon landing. While the whole town celebrates Neil Armstrong's historic Moon walk, Pearl and Walker make love. Marty's mother Lillian learns of the affair and tries to persuade Pearl to break it off. But the affair continues when Marty cannot get to visit on the weekend because of the traffic jams caused by the huge Woodstock festival, which is taking place within walking distance of the bungalow colony. Pearl goes to the festival. She doesn't know that Alison goes as well, with Ross and her friends, although her mother had explicitly forbidden her to do so. Alison becomes upset after seeing Pearl and Walker carousing while on LSD (acid).

Marty learns of his wife's affair and confronts Pearl. Alison also confronts her mother in an emotional scene. Pearl is forced to deal with her love of her family and her conflicting yearning for marital freedom.

Pearl decides to stay with Marty and tells Walker she won't go away with him. He says he understands. The final scene shows Pearl and Marty dancing together, first to Dean Martin's "When You're Smiling" and then to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", after Marty changes the station.

Cast[]

Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune wrote that Allison "obviously" is the writer's "surrogate character".[1]

Stephen Hunter of the Washington Post wrote that Marty is a "schlumph".[2] He praised Diane Lane's "capacity to express the yearning that Pearl feels as authentically as the guilt she suffers."[2]

Music[]

Critical reception[]

A Walk on the Moon received a generally favorable reception among critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 72% based on 36 reviews. The site's consensus states: "An impressive showcase for Diane Lane and an assured debut from director Tony Goldwyn, A Walk on the Moon finds absorbing period drama within a family at a crossroads."[3] Diane Lane's performance earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead.[citation needed]

Readers of Entertainment Weekly ranked the film as #9 on the magazine's "50 Sexiest Movies Ever" poll.[4] The Washington Post found it "a little too perfect and symbolically signposted for its own good".[5]

Wilmington wrote that the film "becomes something larger and deeper as we watch".[1]

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b Wilmington, Michael (2 April 1999). "`A WALK ON THE MOON' MAKES '60S PALPABLE IN ITS OWN QUIET WAY". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Hunters, Stephen (2 April 1999). "Taking Stock at Woodstock". Washington Post. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  3. ^ "A Walk on the Moon". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 28 February 2020.
  4. ^ "50 Sexiest Movies Ever". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
  5. ^ Desson Howe, "'A Walk' Toward a Dead End" Washington Post, 2 April 1999.

External links[]

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