A full moon and wild and crazy passions made Moonstruck a hit in 1987, and won Oscars for Cher as Best Actress, Olympia Dukakis as Best Supporting Actress, and a Best Screenplay Oscar for John Patrick Shanley.

As the story opens, 37 year old widow Loretta Castorini (Cher) lives with her parents Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) and Rose (Olympia Dukakis) in Brooklyn.   Prosaic and practical, Loretta accepts the proposal of stodgy Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), a man she likes but does not love.

Johnny must leave right away to visit his dying mother in Palermo, so leaves it up to Loretta to contact his brother Ronny and invite him to the wedding.  The brothers haven't spoken to one another in five years, there's Bad Blood between them and Johnny wants to bury the hatchet. 

So Loretta goes to visit the fiance's brother she's never met, and her practical world falls apart.  Ronny (Nicolas Cage) is a raging maniac.  He blames Johnny for the accident that cost him the fingers of one hand, and the accident for the loss of his own fiancee, who dumped him shortly after. 

Loretta and Ronny spar verbally for a bit, and then fall into each other's arms and into bed.  The next morning Loretta is horrified and tries to back away from the consequences of her actions.  But Ronny is in love and in pursuit.  ("I'm in love with you!"  "Snap out of it!")   He tells Loretta if she'll just go to the opera with him, he'll never bother her again. 

So she does.  And of course, she does the Hollywood standard 'fixing yourself up', gets her hair done, a new dress and shoes, the whole deal.   And has to admit to herself that she too is in love with Ronny.  So how do they fix this dilemma? 

Moonstruck is a fun romantic movie which I've always enjoyed - the Oscars are well-deserved.  The glitch for me is my inability to see Nicolas Cage as a romantic lead.  He's excellent as the crazy raver, but marriage material?  (Of course, consider the alternative - brother Johnny is nothing to write home about.)

There's more going on here than Loretta Is Engaged To Johnny But In Love With Ronny.  Father Cosmo is carrying on his own extra-marital fling, while wise Mama Rose is sadly pondering the issue of "why do men chase women?"   The entire story takes place over a several day period under a huge full moon that seems to profoundly effect the characters. 

This is one of those movies that makes me want to up stakes and move to New York City - the residential neighborhoods with the small town feel, relatives and neighbors in and out of one another's homes and places of business, and yet just a short distance away, the culture and glamor of the opera house. 

A quibble - I can see a young widow with a close-knit family moving back home when her husband dies, but Loretta's allegedly adored late husband seems like Mister Plot Device.  We're never even told his name, and Loretta is using her maiden name?  Yuppy career women might retain their maiden name, but I can't see Cher's character doing so with her background. 

But enough quibbling.  Seize the day, grab for the gusto, live life to the fullest, follow your heart -- Moonstruck tells you (and entertainingly) to do all these things, and everything will work out fine.  And it could very well be right, so give it a try, both movie and message.

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