Moonlight and Valentino

I saw this film shortly before watching In Her Shoes with Toni Collette and Cameron Diaz. There are a lot of similarities between the two films. They both have great casts and good acting. They both have stock characters of sisters who are very different, an offensive stepmother, a woman friend/confidant, an emotionally unavailable father, a dead mother and a surprise lover. Both films have the characters experience life-changing realizations and both films suffer from a kind of 'love conquers all' sentimentality. They both add a little titillation with Cameron Diaz in black underwear and a partial back shot of Gwyneth Paltrow naked.

Both films seem contrived, as if the writers of the works the films are based on did market research and said, "Ok, there's a market for stories about relationships between women, so I'm going to write about two sisters with an offensive stepmother…" In other words, instead of the drama emerging from the truth of the relationship, the relationship is invented to fit the dramatic situation. It seems forced, the characters don't seem real, the relationships are unbelievable.

The resolution of the tensions between the characters is simplistic with simple apologies completely whisking away years of acrimony leaving everyone feeling warm and fuzzy ever after. It's just not real. Romantic fantasy.

The characters in In Her Shoes are a little more overblown than Moonlight & Valentino, especially the stepmother part. Sydelle Feller, in In Her Shoes is so evil that it is difficult to believe that the father would stay with her, or even marry her in the first place. Kathleen Turner at least shows some emotional vulnerability as the stepmother in Moonlight & Valentino.

If you liked Moonlight & Valentino you will probably like In Her Shoes as well. Enjoyable performances in both, in fact, the actors bring depth to their parts that goes way beyond the contrived sentimentality of the scripts.

I'm not one to usually admit I was teared up during a movie but this movie got me at least three times. That alone should give it a 7 rating but I added one more. I guess I really understood Lucy in the movie since those are the type of women I would date. Once you get to know them all, all 4 that is, you can really understand this complex relationship. I will not go into too many details but this is a must watch movie and not a perfect 10 but pretty darn good. I cannot believe that this has under a 6 rating not true at all. So i have to add a few more lines. OK then vote for this movie with your heart not from a spectacularly sensational Hollywood standpoint.

I am only 21, but i watched this movie a LONG time ago with my mom & never really appreciated it...I thought it was awful, but now that I have lost someone (a boyfriend) and have had to learn to lean on other people I really appreciate it and know that it really is a great movie!!!

To me it seemed kind of surreal when i was younger that anyone could be like that... but the speech at the end when she tells Ben bye...now that i have watched it again makes me tear up now just thinking about it. Its hard to look back and have regrets and i get it now.

I loved this movie and i'm thinking about buying it...helps you deal a little bit

Moonlight and Valentino is a truthful drama about mourning. Elizabeth Perkin's character is well written and well acted. You really feel as if she has lost her husband. She goes through all of the natural emotions of sadness, denial, and guilt. Whoopi's character is annoyingly written, but she adds a human spark to Sylvia. Gwyneth's character is the epitome of an insecure college girl. She is written as if from experience. Kathleen Turner's character is easy to hate in a pitied sort of way. All in all the movie is well written and truthfully told. You are left feeling that even if you do lose the one you love, life will go on.

"Moonlight..." is a slightly massaged and sanitized but insightful and warm look at a woman (Perkins) coping with grief with help from a distaff trio of family/friends. A beautifully crafted piece of work at all levels, this dialogue-intensive film spares us much of the usual mourning melodrama and gets right into the healing process with humor, charm, and sensitivity while exploring the principal's relationships and not lingering too long on the central grief issue. Overall, an entertaining piece which, IMHO, was scored too low by IMDB.com users because of the male side of the jury. Recommended for more mature audiences... and Ebert, wake up and smell the roses.