Moonstruck

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Moonstruck
Directed by Norman Jewison
Produced by Norman Jewison
Written by John Patrick Shanley
Starring Cher
Nicolas Cage
Olympia Dukakis
Vincent Gardenia
Danny Aiello
Music by Dick Hyman
Cinematography David Watkin
Editing by Lou Lombardo
Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) December 16, 1987
Running time 102 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

Moonstruck is a 1987 romantic comedy film directed by Norman Jewison.

This film is number 72 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies" and number 41 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The story is about a middle aged, Italian-American woman named Loretta Castorini (Cher) who is engaged to Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), but before their marriage he has to visit his dying mother in Palermo, Italy. Loretta's father, Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) does not approve the marriage because he believes Loretta has bad luck in marriage. Loretta was married once already. Her first husband died because he was hit by a bus. Her mother, Rose (Olympia Dukakis) does not really care about the marriage, but her question is:

Rose: "Do you love him?"
Loretta: "No. But I like him. He's a good man."
Rose: "Good. 'Cause when you love 'em, they drive you crazy, because they know they can."

Johnny calls Loretta from Palermo and says that he wants her to talk to his younger brother, Ronny (Nicolas Cage) in coming to the wedding. At first, Ronny was resistant to Loretta's demands in coming to wedding, but for some reason after she cooked him a good meal, the two ended up in bed together. They woke up later and Loretta felt ashamed of herself. She said she could never see Ronny again until the wedding, but Ronny was instantly hooked and Loretta too in her own way.

After feeling bad for betraying her fiance, Loretta goes to church and sees her mother Rose praying. Rose indicates to Loretta that Cosmo might be cheating on her. Ronny decides to woo Loretta by taking her to the opera later that day. Loretta dyes her hair and gets a beautiful dress. At the opera, after feeling the love she and Ronny share, Loretta sees her father with another woman. Loretta tells her father to give her up. He says he is a grown man, but later on Rose confronts Cosmo and tells him to give the other woman up. Upset, Loretta and Ronny have an emotional encounter under the full moon and they end up spending the night together.

Later that night at the Castorini house, Johnny has arrived back from Palermo. His mother has made a miraculous recovery and he has something important to tell Loretta. Loretta shows up the next morning with love marks on her neck and is shocked that Johnny has returned. Ronny arrives at the house to confront his brother that he is in love with Loretta. Johnny, however, is the first to shock the whole family by telling Loretta that he can't marry her. Even though upset, Loretta is relieved because that was the opportunity to Ronny to prove his love for Loretta to Johnny and rest the family by proposing. Very much in love with him, to her mother's dismay, Loretta accepts.

Loretta (Cher) and Ronny (Nicolas Cage)
Loretta (Cher) and Ronny (Nicolas Cage)

Award wins:

Award nominations:

Ronny Cammareri: I'm in love with you.
Loretta Castorini: [slapping him] Snap out of it!
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