Shoot the Moon

Honest drama about the breakup of a 15 year marriage that is brought to the screen with brute intensity by acting giants Finney and Keaton. Director Alan Parker arrives at some striking revelations about what keeps people together and what drives them apart. There are moments that are exceptionally moving and the supporting cast should also be commended for their work.

A writer in California's Marin County leaves his wife (and four young daughters) for another woman. I'm not quite sure who the audience is for a picture like this. Obviously it's an R-rated film intended for adults, but some of the silly levity--with kids spilling hot chocolate and so on--is so broad that I think it would make most adults uncomfortable (indeed, the film failed at the box-office). As a showcase for the leading actors, Diane Keaton and Albert Finney, it's an erratic mood piece which allows them to blow off emotional steam, but I didn't buy a screaming-match sequence in a restaurant (again, too broad) nor a climactic battle on the tennis court which will leave most viewers cold. No, the best thing in "Shoot The Moon" is the young Dana Hill, who died a few years back of Diabetes-related causes; she was not a natural kid actress (in some of her big scenes, you can feel a mechanical rhythm at work), nor was she adept at subtle emotions (she often zips through at warp speed from A to Z). However, she has a perceptive quality that is rare, and she's very intense. The sequence where she holds her father off with scissors is extremely moving and unsettling, and it's to Hill's credit that a scene like this works at all. "Shoot The Moon" tries for bared emotions and a kind of pent-up, married hostility that few films have explored (maybe Harold Pinter or Ingmar Bergman). It's simply not as entertaining per se as something like "Kramer Vs. Kramer" because of its claustrophobic atmosphere and underpopulated environment. Director Alan Parker tries too hard to liven things up--mostly with crassness--though his joshing isn't in tune with the emotional decay, and the picture leaves you with a peculiar unease. **1/2 from ****

If you haven't seen "Shoot the Moon", see it. It is very difficult to find, as it appears to be out of print. To a degree, it reminds me of "The Pumpkin Eater" (Eng., 1964), with Anne Bancroft and Peter Finch. Both films deal with bad marriages, in which the husband cheats. Also, the husbands in both films are writers (Peter Finch plays a screenwriter, Albert Finney plays a novelist), and the wives are very supportive, up to a point. However, comparisons seems to end at this point, as "Shoot the Moon" really portrays the emotional stages of divorce and its effects on the entire family and others in their environs whereas "The Pumpkin Eater" focuses mostly on the character of Jo Armitage, played by Anne Bancroft, and her proclivity to have children and find most of her self-worth in raising children.

Diane Keaton and Albert Finney play the husband and wife in "Shoot the Moon", and they are both absolutely superb in their roles. Ditto for Dana Hill, the actress playing their oldest child (very tragically, this very talented actress died in 1996 due to complications from diabetes). This film is so realistic, and the acting, all the way around, is so natural. Diane Keaton's scene singing in the bathtub is particularly moving, as is the scene in which Albert Finney wants to give his eldest daughter her birthday present. This whole latter scene was portrayed very realistically....no sugar-coating here, and for that, I applaud Parker and the cast. Keaton's scene with Peter Weller (who plays Frank) on their first "date" was also very realistic and low-key, considering the emotions her character Faith is going through, just re-entering the "dating" scene since her husband left her. Faith's announcement of her knowledge of her husband's affair, to her husband, in the middle of talking about running out of orange juice, was also so realistic. This screenplay was simply very well written all the way around. I might not agree with the ending entirely; but, it was a story option that was plausibly pursued.

On a few other notes, the soundtrack offers a nice throwback to the '70's (Bob Segar, etc.). Also watch for a young Tracey Gold, who would later star in "Growing Pains" and a younger Tina Yothers, who would later star in "Family Ties". I highly recommend this film....a very good story and great acting together provide for a thoroughly enjoyable cinematic experience. In retrospect, it was sorely overlooked on Oscar night.

Well done, realistic film. Though Keaton gives her usual strong performance. And Finney does a good job of acting as the man coming apart (he reminds me of Richard Burton in Night of the Iguana). But the real story here for me was between Dana Hill's character and both her parents. I am not too familiar with Dana Hill, though I somehow recognize her from something. But in this film she does a marvelous job of showing the pain felt by children from parental separation. Another thing about this film is that it somehow really manages to remind me of the late 70s/early 80s. A side note for compaction equipment fans: check out that Dynapac roller!!! No idea which model is being used to compact the tennis court. But it looks like a great machine.

SHOOT THE MOON is an unbelievably heartbreaking movie. I saw this as a kid, by myself, in my local theatre in 1982. I love movies - then and now - particularly adult-skewing films, even when I was 13. I don't know what I was thinking, but at 13 I wanted to experience everything... from RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK to REDS.

Like Alan Alda's serio-comic THE FOUR SEASONS the year before, this was an introduction to how complicated relationships could be in my future. I came from a happy family, and my parents are still happily together. But my reality is that I lived around this exact movie with my school-aged friends: parents' separations, divorces, the anger and the selfishness, and the confused kids caught in the middle.

The film captures the subtle reality of divorce and the demolition of a relationship through the screen writing of the legendary Bo Goldman and the beautiful direction by Alan Parker.

To this day, the combination still floors me as a viewer. Albert Finney and Diane Keaton have never been better, as a couple going through a separation, a divorce and yet a difficult familial uncoupling, and are perfect for this film. Their performances are stunning. Dana Hill as their child caught in the middle of this separation is phenomenal, that nails the confusion and conflict of forced-adaptation brings.

SHOOT THE MOON helped me understand at a very young age that this is how relationships collapse, and illustrated that people are imperfect. It showed that hubris, loneliness and expectation come with exceptional price-tags - it was a shocker at an early age.

This is one of the lost "great" movies of the 1980s, and I am glad it is on DVD. It's just a movie that is so difficult to embrace, but I am pleased that it exists. It is an amazing movie.