Moonstruck

Set in a snow-dusted Brooklyn Heights during a luminous winter week, Moonstruck follows 37-year-old widow Loretta Castorini, a pragmatic bookkeeper who has become deeply superstitious after her first husband was killed by a bus. When her boyfriend Johnny Cammareri proposes, she accepts not out of passion but because she believes it is time to do things the proper way. But Johnny must rush to Sicily because his mother is dying, and he asks Loretta to personally invite his estranged brother Ronny to the wedding.

Loretta finds Ronny working in a bakery, a man consumed by bitterness and rage. He lost his hand in a bread-slicing machine accident, an event he blames entirely on Johnny. Despite her intentions to simply deliver the invitation, Loretta is pulled into Ronny's orbit. He is everything Johnny is not: volatile, emotional, and intensely passionate. Their encounter sets off a chain of romantic complications that extend beyond their own situation, affecting Loretta's parents and the entire Castorini family.

Directed by Norman Jewison and written by John Patrick Shanley, who based the script on his own Italian-American upbringing, the film earned three Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Cher and Best Supporting Actress for Olympia Dukakis. With its operatic score by Dick Hyman and a memorable turn by Nicolas Cage, Moonstruck became a cultural touchstone, celebrated for its unsentimental yet warm-hearted take on love and family. [edit]

Loretta Castorini, a 37-year-old widow, lives with her parents and grandfather in a Brooklyn Heights brownstone. She works as a bookkeeper and has become deeply superstitious after her first husband was hit by a bus. When her boyfriend Johnny Cammareri, a sweet but childish man, proposes, she accepts not out of love but because she believes it is time. She insists on doing everything the proper way this time, including a formal wedding.

Immediately after the proposal, Johnny receives word that his mother is dying in Sicily and must leave that night. Before departing, he makes Loretta promise to personally invite his estranged younger brother Ronny to the wedding. Ronny, who works as a baker, has not spoken to Johnny in five years. When Loretta tracks him down at his bakery, she discovers a man consumed by rage. Ronny reveals that he lost his hand in a bread-slicing machine accident, which he blames entirely on Johnny. Since the accident, his fiancée left him, and he has been living a bitter, isolated existence.

Despite her intentions to simply deliver the invitation, Loretta finds herself drawn to Ronny. He is passionate, volatile, and unapologetically intense. After a dramatic confrontation, the two end up spending the night together, setting off a chain of romantic complications. Ronny insists that love is messy and destructive, that people are not meant to be perfect but to ruin themselves and break their hearts. He persuades Loretta to accompany him to the opera, Puccini's La Bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, where she undergoes a profound emotional awakening.

Meanwhile, Loretta's mother Rose suspects her husband Cosmo is having an affair. Rose begins questioning the nature of love and fidelity, leading her to a chance encounter with a college professor named Perry, who regularly gets drinks thrown in his face by much younger women. Cosmo is indeed seeing a woman named Mona on the side, though he remains devoted to his family in his own way. Loretta's grandfather wanders through the household with his five small dogs, offering cryptic observations about love and the moon.

The central conflict builds as Loretta tries to navigate her growing feelings for Ronny while maintaining her engagement to Johnny, who is expected back from Sicily soon. The story builds toward a climactic morning when Johnny returns, and all the characters must confront their secrets and choices around the Castorini family breakfast table.[edit]