Box of Moonlight

Everything in this film is about subtlety... I think that's why it has such a lasting effect.

It's definitely one of those "mischievous" films... sort of an escape from reality that makes you wonder why you and others take themselves so seriously. It's something that will most likely linger with you for a while. This film made me re-evaluate the seriousness of my life. I think this is among the only films that actually has changed my life somewhat.

I suppose I have the right sex, the right age and the right background to absolutely love this movie. It is full of beautiful pictures, romantic and humorous scenes. The balance between dream and reality is aptly kept, the use of colour is deliberate and aesthetically sound (green and shades of blue predominate), the soundtrack is memorable and supports the pictures very well. Box of Moon Light has a pleasant slow pace, and all is well orchestrated into a good, coherent story and a single statement: You have to look for the poetic side of life wherever you are, in whatever situation you find yourself in.

All characters are three dimensional: John Turturro is simply brilliant (the quality of his performance here equals the one he gave in Quiz Show) as the conscientious, morally uptight middle class Mr. Everyman who is sent to a nowhere place in the rolling hills of Tennessee on a futile mission. Sam Rockwell is equally well cast in his role of a totally carefree present day Huckleberry Finn/Davy Crockett who rules supreme in his own little junk-kingdom. Catherine Keener was certainly never lovlier than here. She plays a shy girl from the backwoods and is surprisingly convincing in that role.

Sam Rockwell is an excellent actor. He also does not shy away from quirky roles that require liberal use of nudity. Just as in "Lawn Dogs," Sammy shows it all in "Box of Moonlight." The film is really an actor's showcase for John Tuturro too. He is perfect as the socially inept engineer who is "shown the (moon) light" by Rockwell. One can quibble about the choices the two characters make on their road to emotional "freedom," but the movie is charming none-the-less, and a nice companion film to "Lawn Dogs" in its depiction of life in south central America. This is an "Adult Fable," So suspend your need for action, and discover you have new needs: for character development, for dialog, for symbolism, for magic.

Due of my obsession for Sam Rockwell i found this wonderful piece of film, knowing absolutely nothing about it, and...what can I say....it's well as we would say it in German: einfach wunderbar.....

Tom DiCillos Film describes in very brilliant scenes how a boring typical American father and husband discovers what life meant to be.... This film has several great scenes in it...the all-American-way of life is present throughout the whole story, showing for example this really fat boy jumping around the pool, or the incredible friendly woman of the car-renal-station....

John Turturro is brilliant as this empty man, who seems to never had any joy in his whole life, accept as a kid at this lake where he travels to, as the had some days off after work.... On his way he meets Buck alias The Kid, a young man who lives deep in the woods far away from every society..For seven days now these very different people get together...and it's so inspiring to see them become...well....some kind of friends.

Sam Rockwell is absolutely gorgeous as The Kid, i had this weird feeling - whenever he's in – i have to embrace this grown-up kid ever and ever again, never let him go.... His face in this scene when Turturro's Character wants to get back the key for his car.... indescribable...wow.... Well....surely i only want to intimate that this film is acting at it's purest.... In the end Turturro's Character as changed, in a little not so obvious way...an me to.

I'd heard plenty of people tell me that I needed to see "Box of Moonlight" because it was filmed in Knoxville, TN (my hometown) and that it featured several signs and personalities familiar to Knoxvillians (the newscasters Gene Patterson and Kristin Hoke, the hot pink "Bambi's" bar/strip club, etc.), so I watched the movie almost entirely trying to pick up these things. I found myself enjoying a very subtle, lighthearted film about a man (John Turturro) struggling with a mid-life crisis, and eventually liberating himself from the normal stiff, "clockwork" persona he had become. Sam Rockwell gives a great performance as "Kid", and Catherine Keener is wonderful as the "simple southern girl" (a 180 degree turn from her role in "Being John Malkovich"). Turturro is excellent as Al, and you can feel the emotions he is having during his transformation. Everyone should be able to relate to his disappointment when he returns to the fictional Splatchee Lake, only to see that it is no longer what he remembers. You begin to understand how much he needs someone like Kid to break him free from the life that he so obviously loathes, but not until the final scene do you understand how much Kid needed him to stick around and be his friend (maybe Kid wasn't as slow-witted as we were made to believe?). The writing and acting in this film are wonderful, and I wish more filmmakers would make movies like this. It was a refreshing story, and one that is worth seeing.