L'ultima luna d'agosto

Maybe I'm just a sucker for white sands and blue water, even more of a sucker for sweet stories, but I loved this movie. Yes, I could get critical, but then I could be critical about just about every movie I've ever seen. Bottom line is, I loved this movie, I like Terri Garr, I like Gene Hackman, and I found nothing bad about this movie. I like romantic movies, and this was certainly that.

Gene made a believable everyman buried in sadness about the loss of his wife, while Terri was her usual professional self, playing a woman in love with him but unable to break through his shell. Burgess Meridith, during his life, made a career out of playing crusty characters, and this one was no exception. I only tried this film an someone else's recommendation, and it turned out to be a good one.

Lately I've been on a Gene Hackman 1980's kick. Hoosiers, many folks think is the best portrayal of a sports coach, maybe the best sports film ever made. Twice in a Lifetime is a middle-aged love story of betrayal in a blue-collar family and it ranks up there as the best of Hackman's work. Then there is a less successful film, Full Moon in Blue Water.

No one in the movies in the last thirty years portrays the middle-age everyman, the tough, and hard working, Joe like Hackman. He's certainly not a romantic idol, but he is manly enough to woe Ann Margaret in Once in a Lifetime and Teri Garr in Water. In addition, Garr is very good as a faded honky-tonk town girl with widower, Hackman in her sights. The trouble, Hack is still in love with his missing spouse. He spends most of his days watching old home movies of the lost wife while his saloon business goes to pieces. Also, he must deal with a stroke victim, the father-in-law, Burgesss Meredith, the quintessential old coot.

Somehow the viewer will not believe that a capable character like Hack would let a business go to sleazy Real Estate snakes without a bar brawl. The idea that Hack would moon about the ex for a year while busty Garr is all over him; well, it doesn't add up.

Dreadful! Any film that contains a sequence (usually 'poignant') of a character (typically a middle-aged man) watching home movies of happier days is a picture that shamelessly courts clichés. "Full Moon in Blue Water" begins with such a scene--before we even know who the characters are or what the central circumstance is (frankly, I was more curious who was shooting the home movies of Gene Hackman and his wife frolicking on the lake). Hackman plays a widower who is still grieving his wife's death by drowning after several years; he runs a tired old lakefront bar on the Texas coast, but is unknowingly sitting on prime real estate that the County commissioner wants to scare him off of. Director Peter Masterson keeps this nitwit story rolling along, but somewhere late in the second reel I felt he and the cast had nothing more to offer. Elias Koteas as a not-too-bright bar-employee nearly shows up the heavyweight stars (not just Hackman, but Teri Garr and Burgess Meredith to boot); unfortunately, his role is made impossible by a ridiculous turn of events. The action is kept very busy, yet the characters never take shape and some of the dialogue is really ugly. Garr made a lot of bad film choices after her Oscar-nominated turn in "Tootsie", but what drew Hackman to such a thin, innocuous project? *1/2 from ****

This is a fun little film that gives Gene Hackman, Burgess Meredith and Teri Garr the chance to do what they do best! And an almost unrecognizable young actor from Chicago PD. I had to look up Elias Koreas (Al) to identify him. The setting on the southeast coast of Texas is perfect for this tale. Lots of comic relief, with some very poignant moments. The soundtrack is also very good. I very much enjoyed this movie. At this point I'm just typing words to meet the required character number. I mean, why do that? I can understand a maximum number of letters, but a minimum? Sometimes it only takes a few words to convey how good (or bad) a movie is.

Just a few days after the news that Gene Hackman had passed away I watched this movie, strangely enough this movie was completely unknown to me, I can't remember ever seeing it in the video store.

Actually a kind of standard drama story without really getting too heavy because there is also some humor in it.

Floyd can't get over the death of his wife, his bar is a failing business and a real estate shark is after his company.

The roles are nicely filled with Burgess Meredith as his old father-in-law who is in a wheelchair and provides many comic moments, Teri Garr gets to play the new girlfriend and there are a few other characters like the sheriff and Floyd's assistant.

Nice light drama with some comic elements in it.