When the moon hits your eye
Like a big pizza pie, that’s amore
When the world seems to shine
Like you’ve had too much wine, that’s amore

–Dean Martin “That’s Amore”

I vaguely remember first watching Moonstruck in the early 90s. At the time, I was working my first job at a mom-and-pop local video rental place called Super Video. One of the perks of working there was, as an employee, you could take home any videos that had gone unrented at store closing. As many as you wanted, even new releases! I had a VCR and TV in my room (quite the middle-class luxury for a 15 year-old boy) and so I’d come home from work and watch movies until the wee morning hours.

At the time, I was obsessed with movies that depicted Italian-American culture. I watched The Godfather trilogy, My Cousin Vinny, and I distinctly remember Marlon Brando’s The Freshman because it was a popular new release at the time. I am sure it was during this same time period that I came across Moonstruck. While this movie was not a Mafia movie, it had Cher in it, who at the time was on my hormone-radar due to her lingerie-clad music videos on MTV. (Oh, If I Could Turn Back Time…)

Looking back on it, this oddball romantic comedy was probably a strange choice for a teenage boy, but my eclectic tastes were pretty indiscriminate at the time. In the movie, Cher (who was 39 years old when the movie came out) plays the widow, Loretta Castorini who is betrothed to marry the innocuous, but obviously wrong man, Johnny Cammareri (played artfully by Danny Aeillo.) The right man for Loretta, comes (not surprisingly) in the form of Johnny’s estranged and angry younger brother, Ronny Cammareri (played by the much younger 23 year-old Nicolas Cage) with whom Loretta finds instant attraction and chemistry. The rub comes then, of course, when Loretta must decide if she’s going to play it safe and marry Johnny as she originally planned, or tempt the fates with a heart-over-head decision to marry for passion, i.e. Ronny. Complicating matters, she believes that such cavalier decisions doomed her first marriage and killed her husband, who got hit by a bus, because the two “got married at city hall instead of a church.”

In a nutshell this is the basic plot of Moonstruck, but the film also explores bigger ideas like fidelity and passion; the build-up and dissolution of romantic love, the devastation of family grievances and the redemption that comes with forgiveness, the unrealized and realized ways that the fear of death plays out in our lives. But not in a very heavy-handed way. It’s still a comedy after all.

The movie was also very much about the hypnotic, crazy-making power of the Moon. But let’s save that for our…

World According to Cage observations:

Not a Cage movie. At its heart, Moonstruck is not really a Nicolas Cage movie. It’s a Cher movie in which Cage plays a supporting role. I present as evidence to this fact, the cover / poster of the movie below. There is no room for Cage here; just Cher alone standing in front of the moon and New York City. I also present, as evidence, the fact that Cage doesn’t even show up for quite a while in this film, and isn’t in a majority of the scenes. This is really a movie about Cher and her family, and Cage gets to tag along for the ride.

But Cage is STILL the best part. Not to disrespect Cher, but Nicolas Cage is “hands-down” (pun intended) the best part of this movie. From the first scene, when Loretta meets her fiancé’s brother, Ronny (Cage), at his bakery, we are treated to a vintage Cage persona. He’s visibly upset, sarcastic, scruffy, grieving, begrudging, crazed and depressed, suicidal, but passionate for his cause. We get all of the range of emotions in one single scene. Not only that, but we’re treated to a Cage character in Ronny who is sporting a wooden hand (with its own sad story), an awkward vitriol-heavy scene in front of some innocent coworkers, and a series of tantrum throwing opportunities that make Ronny the more tragic, defiant, and comic.

But let’s not describe what the words of Ronny can so exquisitely portray. A few quotes:

“I have no life. I have no life. Johnny took my life.”

“What is life?” They said bread is life and I bake *bread*, *bread*, *BREAD*. And I sweat and shovel this stinking bread into this hot hole in the wall, and I should be soooo happy?!? Huh, sweetie?  

“Bring me the big knife!” Johnny screams, “I’m gonna cut my throat!  Crissy, bring me the big knife! 

When, Loretta tries to explain to Ronny that the accident that took his hand was not really Johnny’s fault, Ronny flips a pan across the room with a clatter, and screams!

“I don’t care. I ain’t no  freakin’ monument to justice. I lost my hand! I lost my bride! Johnny has his hand. Johnny has his bride. You want me to take my heartbreak, put it away and forget.” 

“It’s just a matter of time before a man opens up his eyes, and gives up his one dream. His one dream of happiness.”

The chemistry between the two heats up pretty quickly after this. Loretta follows Ronny back to his apartment and they talk about fate, about how Ronny is a wolf who chewed off his own hand (metaphorically) so that he wouldn’t marry the wrong person. Ronny responds by telling Loretta that she’s willing to lose her own head (metaphorically) by marrying someone she doesn’t have true passion for in Johnny–just to avoid what she really wants.

Then Loretta cooks Ronny a raw steak (as one does), even though he orders tells her he, “like[s] it well done.” Ronny upends the kitchen table, plates, and silverware, grabs Loretta, and carries her to the bedroom. As they make passionate love, Loretta asks Ronny to take the anger for his brother out on her–take it all out on her and “remove the skin from her bones”. Ronny agrees to comply saying, “Alright. Alright, there will be nothing left.”

The Moon

As funny as this sounds, there really wasn’t much left OF THE MOVIE after this first passion, even though the viewer was only about half way through the film. Oh sure, there was the Moon driving all this passion, bewitching the Brooklyn nights with its aphrodisiac wiles. Causing Loretta to fall for Ronny. Bringing multiple family love affairs together at the Opera house or on the streets of Brooklyn. Pushing Loretta’s father and mother into the arms or orbits of other people. Sending Loretta’s grandfather roaming around the block with his pack of dogs, drawing cousins and uncles and aunts to stare out brightly lit night windows at the big old beautiful moon. But really the rest of the film is just a precursor to the final verdict of everyone accepting what we already know deep down: Death will take us all one day; we have to face it. And in the meantime love / fidelity is all there is to live for.

At least that’s my impatient interpretation of Moonstruck.

To sum up the ending (spoiler alert) because of all this heaped-on Italian superstition, Johnny returns home to Loretta (he had been visiting his sick mother in Italy) and he decides that he can’t marry Loretta (how convenient) because this miracle that saved his mother would somehow be disrupted if he were to follow through on the marriage. Shrug, shrug. This works in the favor of Loretta and Ronny and is accepted by the family as normal. All’s well that ends well. That’s amore.

Favorite quotes from the movie:

Those mentioned above, and…

Firsts for a Nicolas Cage character (Ronny) in this film:

• Baker as an occupation. (First time shown kneading dow violently.)
• Missing all the digits on one hand (plus a wooden hand).
• Visiting the Opera.
• First time seen in wife beater (tank top)
• First shot of his real back tattoo (a monitor lizard with a top hat on)
• First time threatening to kill himself (with a knife)

Summary: While this was a step back enjoyment-wise from Raising Arizona, it was a very Cage-friendly role and allowed him to really get angry, lose his shit, and throw his acting range around. I loved the tantrums, and also the sardonic way Ronny would use his wooden hand to scratch his face or touch his nose. This role will be a nice warm up for his next madman starring role in Vampire’s Kiss. We’ll get to that in our next installment.