#7 Moonstruck

#7 Moonstruck

Year: 1987

Director: Norman Jewison

MPAA Rating:  PG 

Epic Co-stars: Cher

Running Time: 102 mins.
Cage Time: 25%
Cage Kills: 0
Cage Flip-outs: 2

Skyler's Review: Every romantic comedy has some sort of love triangle, but Moonstruck takes this to the next level: a triangle made out of two brothers and Cher (the actually young Cher, not the "young-looking" Cher). Cher's character, Loretta, is acute woman who lost her husband due to bad luck. Johnny proposes but is a bit obtuse. Loretta then meets Ronny (The Cage), Johnny's brother, and also falls for him (c'mon, it's Nic Cage). Ronny is more adjacent, but she is engaged to Johnny. She hopes for a sine. Then there is a story-arctangent, about the moon, luck, love, and the moon for a secant time. That's right, triangle jokes in this review.

Looking beautiful, as always. Cher looks OK.

Studies have shown that RomComs actually have a negative impact on your relationships by setting up unrealistic expectations for love. This movie is quite the opposite. The entire theme of this movie is that relationships are messy; life is messy. People make decisions that impact the rest of their lives, but should you listen to your prefrontal cortex (brain) or your amygdala (heart)? Ronny is the amygdala, raw emotion. He could flip-out at any moment or start crying. Johnny is the prefrontal cortex, logic and planning, unfeeling. Loretta is Freud's concept of ego trying to weigh both and make a decision about life, love, and risk. 

"It is better to have hand and lost than never to have hand at all."

Loretta struggles to make her choice, but will she be happily ever after? Well, life isn't happy ever after. Flowers die. Puppies grow into dogs, then they die. Cars break and die. The sun will die. How do you find happiness in this context? You can close your eyes and get lost in the moment, but that lasts a moment. You can plan for decades into the future, but is planning happiness? It is better to have loved and lost than to never love at all.

Real-life involves shouting-matches at the kitchen table.

Regarding Cage's performance, he is stellar. He perfectly portrays a character that doesn't think at all. Emotional action and reaction. No regard to the future! You can see why Cher requested Nic Cage by name to play this part. There is only thing that could have made this film even better: more Cage time; however, this film is a great addition to any Nicolas Cage library.

Movie quotability:

• "Chrissy, bring the big knife I'm gonna cut my throat"
• "I lost my hand! I lost my bride! Johnny has his had! Johnny has his bride!"
• "Johnny, can I borrow that ring?"

Plot Holes:

• A liquor store in Brooklyn has a big heart shaped sign in the front window.
• The year is 1987, yet Ronny still has a wooden prosthetic hand.

	CAGEamatic	Cinematic
Skyler	Acceptable	Acceptable
Shauna
James	2.8/5	3.1/5
Martine	!Enjoyed her laptop in the Cage!