Le choix d'une vie

I like movies with a good character-centered plot and this certainly qualifies. So many Hollywood movies have a distinctly evil antagonist and a pure protagonist. There is no "bad guy" in this movie. All of the people have a side that I could relate to, but they make mistakes along the way.

In all a very good film

The first time I watched this movie, I think I was just captivated by the excellent performances. Viggo Mortenson, like William H. Macy and James Caviezel, is one of those whose roles are understated but so well executed and you anticipate their next work. Diane Lane is gorgeous, and I think that somehow is supposed to drive a pitiful feeling from us that a woman of so much beauty is shackled down to a normal existence. Liev Schreiber's role was the most successful of the principles. The real sympathy in this movie DOES go to him for spending the duration of it separated from his family, and his philandering wife, simply keeping his tv-repair job.

Rule #1 about this movie, don't see it with your significant other. The passionate scenes of a cheating spouse copulating with a free-spirited, self-centered vagrant under a waterfall will make both of you uncomfortable. The scene that bothered me most was the actual moon-landing, where while he's quarantined to the shop repairing TVs so everyone can watch the event she's making it with the blouse-man on the bus. As others have said in this forum, the main point at the end of the movie is that she was misunderstood by a caring husband, her needs weren't satisfied (we never mention his), and ulimately he'll have to forsake his matured take on life if he's ever going to have his wife back.

It was the equivalent of watching Dharma and Greg with explicit adultery, where once again the responsible spouse has to pick up the pieces and try to understand their act-before-thinking partner. This isn't a statement of gender specifics, I'm well aware that plenty of men are unfaithful and self-centered as well. I'm just tired of people in this country deciding we can be married and never compromise on anything. It simply won't work that way. Marriage is a give and take, and in order to function right we need movies that emphasize communication. A movie that tries to justify infidelity isn't going to enhance anyone. I love my wife dearly, and I don't need to see a movie like this one as a cautionary tale of what could be if her needs are left ungratified. See it if you like, but I could mention PLENTY more "chick flicks" which will leave you with a warm or sorrowful feeling at the end worth seeing, rather than an akward feeling that neither of you want to discuss.

The sixties were a time of great transition. At their beginning was the Peace Corps: a way to help those in need of a better life. At their end it was the me generation: how high can I get or how can I satiate my senses to the fullest. This movie is one of the best "encapsulations" of those events that I've seen.

The moral overtones of the movie are overwhelming. Wrongs occur. Do we run away from them? Do we trash our lives because of them? This movie attempts to address these questions. It does it well.

Finally, what brings it all together? In two words: Diane Lane. She possesses a deep but quiet beauty that makes it work. Her character asks, "I'm approaching middle age. I have children and a good but somewhat boring husband. Is this all there is?"

All ask this question as youth begins to fade. The answer this movie purports makes it exceptional and even classic. A hundred years from our descendants will look at this movie and appreciate its incite in human existence.

A WALK ON THE MOON as written by Pamela Gray ("Music of the Heart") and directed by actor Tony Goldman conjures up more atmosphere for the year 1969 than any film to date. Remember Woodstock, the Jewish summer retreats in the Catskills, hippies, face and body painting, threats from the Vietnam era and promises of space habitation by the famous first walk on the moon? It is all faithfully created here as the background for a lovely little sentimental tale about family and fidelity.

The Kantrowitz family - Pearl (Diane Lane), Marty (Liev Schreiber), Alison (Anna Paquin), Daniel (Bobby Boriello) and Marty's mother Lilian (Tovah Feldshuh) - are spending their usual summer away form New York in a Catskill settlement bungalow along with other Jewish families of the same ilk. All seems swell, except that Marty must spend the weekdays returning to his job as a TV repairman, leaving the family under Pearl's and Lilian's care until his weekend visits. A hippie blouse salesman Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen) peddles his wares to the settlement and casually but inevitably Pearl feels an attraction to Walker, the man of adventure who represents all the lost dreams of becoming a mother and wife at the too early age of 17. Life has slipped her by but feels salvageable in Walker's advances.

Woodstock is close by and Pearl and Walker spend a day of hippie love-in in the crowd, not knowing that teenage Alison is also there observing their free love antics. This crisis event affects the family's unity and the way Pearl faces her moment of indiscretion with Marty and her children builds to a terrific climax.

Diane Lane, Viggo Mortenson, Liev Schreiber and Tovah Feldshuh completely inhabit these simple characters and pull us into accepting all aspects of the predicament of this family crisis. The confrontation among Lane, Schreiber and Mortenson is a trio of acting not to be forgotten. Tony Goldwyn has paced his film beautifully and proves that he has as great skill as a director as well as an actor. The cinematography by Anthony B. Richmond is as recreative of a special time on our history as has been captured. This little film will stay with you long after the credits are over. Grady Harp

Okay, so I'm surfing the 63 movie channels on my new digital cable......and I hear a voice... It's the loudspeaker of the Catskills bungalows project announcing some esoteric occurrence... You simply had to be there...And I WAS... Forget the glamour of that upscale Catskills resort on "Dirty Dancing"... This was REAL LIFE circa the 1960s...as I, and I'm sure many others remember it from our childhood... (I won't go much into the plot here...that's been covered...it's the FEELING of the movie--the LIFE--that hit me...) Now, I am certain this whole atmosphere will seem bizarre, fairly off kilter to most...But as a Jewish kid born in NYC in 1953, this movie was SO REAL, it was incredible... I swear I was there...no, not in the movie...but in one of those bungalow colonies somewhere in the Catskills in the Summer of '69...close enough to Woodstock to breathe it... And I have never seen a film completely capture the setting as well as this one... Trust me, folks, this is a snapshot in REAL TIME...The characters are right out of my family, my friends...the "resort" is what real life was like for most "working class" NYC families who could squeeze out just enough cash to escape the sweltering NYC summer... There was a point in the "mountains" where my Zayde used to announce "This is as far as the car goes"...He never in his life drove farther from the Bronx than those bungalows... I've watched the movie through twice now and it's just as real every time.