La femme du boucher

"Marina" (Demi Moore) is an attractive young woman who lives on an isolated island off the Carolina coast and is both single and-as it turns out-clairvoyant. So that being the case, one day she becomes overjoyed with a vision she receives which has her future husband coming to the island on a rowboat. Sure enough, not long afterward she finally gets to see the supposed man of her dreams in person and he turns out to be nothing like she had imagined. But being convinced of her vision she marries "Leo Lemke" (George Dzundza) and goes off to New York City with him. Yet even though she tries to be the best wife possible she finds it difficult to keep her visions to herself and that's when things get extremely interesting to everyone living around her. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a pretty good comedy which kept my interest from start-to-finish. Admittedly, it had some slow scenes here and there but it definitely had its moment and I thought that Demi Moore played her role to near perfection. Be that as it may, I thought that this was a refreshing, little comedy and have rated it accordingly. Above average.

I know, I know, it's basically a boiler-plate piece of Hollywood fluff but I really loved this movie. I am a hopeless romantic and thought this movie captured the essence of falling in love and finding your split-apart...er...soul mate. :)

Jeff Daniels is wonderful as the shrink who can't help himself as his world unravels and falls apart thanks to the whacky Demi Moore character. Demi is perfect as the ditzy but charming butcher's wife. I really liked Mary Steenburgen in this story... she looked beautiful and sang like an angel. I liked all of the little characters too. The music at the end is haunting and perfect for the finale which wasn't surprising but who cares!!!

I think that Demi Moore was bold to go with the little known Ocracoke, NC accent because most people will probably (wrongly) think that she was doing a very bad job at a North Carolinian/Southern USA accent.

Ocracoke is a small, fisherman's island at the bottom of the North Carolina Outer Banks island chain and is only accessible by ferry. This isolation has kept the accent there mostly unaltered since the 17th century days when it was inhabited by British seamen. The Ocracoke accent sounds like a mixture of Brit and Yank, so what you hear Demi Moore doing in this movie is really quite accurate.

I also enjoyed the cozy portrayal of the Manhattan (NYC) side street neighborhood life. The NYC avenues tend to be wide, impersonal and busy, but the narrower, townhouse and small shop filled side streets can be quite friendly. It gives me some nice, childhood nostalgic memories to see the happier, day-to-day aspect of NYC life shown in this film.

I watch this romantic comedy whenever it is on TV, and I have no complaints about it at all. I find it to be a sweet, feel-good film with occasional hints at magic realism, but without plunging too far into that iffy genre.

I feel that all the players did good jobs, and that the locations and settings felt very true. Nice production values too.

If you like "Moonstruck", then you will probably like "The Butcher's Wife" too.

What a treat to catch this movie on a HD channel recently; yes, it is "Schlocky-wood", but it's done as a carefully crafted ensemble piece. And what an ensemble! The cast has some great moments, especially for Demi Moore and Jeff Daniels. But there are some "characters in the background" who would become well known for performances yet to come (e.g., Frances McDormand in "Fargo" and Miriam Margoyles as Prof. Sprout in the Harry Potter series). This is an enjoyable, humorous, ironic, feel-good movie... you surely won't have to apologize for crude language or over-the-top violence in any scene (well, you will have to get used to Demi's full length blonde hair, and after "G. I. Jane" that may be tough to do).

This movie is a sweet fantasy with a good message about life, love and destiny. I usually skip movies with medically-oriented protagonists but the fantasy/psychic elements more than make up for the fact that Jeff Daniels plays a psychiatrist. Demi Moore is lovely, though the blonde hair is not. She would have been better with her natural look. Molly Steenbergen is great. I like the way regular people are touched by magic. Less stereotypical than a lot of other romantic comedies. Some people might be distracted by Demi's Moore's accent but I thought it worked well. The movie deals with psychics in a normal manner for a change. Unlike so much of TV and movies now, I really liked most of the characters and believed they were good people.