Unquestionably, much of Moonstruck's popularity was due to the wonderful ensemble cast, including Danny Aiello and Nicolas Cage as the brothers, and, particularly Olympia Dukakis, who won the Best Supporting Actress honors, and Vincent Gardenia, nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The latter two portray the parents of the movie's key player, Cher, who, rightfully and not surprisingly copped the year's Best Actress honors. How an Armenian/Cherokee actress seamlessly became a Brooklynese Italian-American can be easily explained by her amazing knack for mimicry, which first emerged on The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour (1971-1977) during her marriage to Sonny Bono. During and after that liaison, Cher would frequently regale friends and relatives with hysterical dead-on impersonations of her mother-in-law, which no doubt, provided invaluable training for her role of Loretta Castorini. Additional aid came from the actress' addiction to cinema, watching and learning from Hollywood's celebrated past. The extent of Cher's devout movie fandom, belying her party animal personae, recently surfaced in an interview when she described her idea of a great time as "...having one whole day to do nothing but stay in bed and watch Turner Classic Movies." And who can argue with that?
Director/Producer: Norman Jewison
Producer: Patrick Palmer, Lee Rich
Screenwriter: John Patrick Shanley, Patrick Shanley
Cinematographer: David Watkin
Composer: Dick Hyman
Editor: Lou Lombardo
Production Designer: Philip Rosenberg
Associate Producer: Bonnie Palef-Woolf
Set Designer: Phil Smith
Costume Designer: Theoni V. Aldredge
Cast: Cher (Loretta), Nicolas Cage (Ronny), Vincent Gardenia (Cosmo), Olympia Dukakis (Rose), Danny Aiello (Johnny), Julie Bovasso (Rita), John Mahoney (Perry)
C-102m. Letterboxed. Closed captioning.
By Mel Neuhaus
