Moonstruck | |
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Theatrical release poster by Olga Kaljakin
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Directed by | Norman Jewison |
Produced by | Norman Jewison Patrick Palmer |
Written by | John Patrick Shanley |
Starring | |
Music by | Dick Hyman |
Cinematography | David Watkin |
Edited by | Lou Lombardo |
Production
company |
Star Partners II Ltd.
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Distributed by |
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM/UA Communications) |
Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English Italian |
Budget | $15 million |
Box office | $91,640,528 |
Moonstruck is a 1987 American romantic comedy film directed by Norman Jewison and written by John Patrick Shanley. It is about a widowed 37-year-old Italian-American woman (Cher) who falls in love with her fiancé's (Danny Aiello) estranged, hot-tempered younger brother (Nicolas Cage). Vincent Gardenia and Olympia Dukakis play supporting roles.
The film was released on December 16, 1987 in New York City, and then nationally on December 18, 1987. Receiving largely positive reviews from critics, it went on to gross $91.6 million at the North American box office, making it the fifth highest-grossing film of that year.
Moonstruck was nominated for six Oscars at the 60th Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress.
Thirty-seven-year-old Loretta Castorini (Cher), a Sicilian-American widow, is an accountant in Brooklyn Heights, New York, where she lives with her family: her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia) who is a successful plumber, her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis), and her paternal grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin, Jr). Her boyfriend, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to her before leaving for Sicily to attend to his dying mother; she accepts, but is insistent that they carefully follow tradition as she believes her first marriage was cursed by her failure to do so, resulting in her husband's death when he was hit by a bus. They plan to marry one month later, and Johnny asks Loretta to invite his estranged younger brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to the wedding. Loretta returns home and informs her parents of the engagement. Cosmo dislikes Johnny and is reluctant to commit to paying for the "real" wedding Loretta insists on, while Rose is pleased that Loretta likes Johnny but does not love him; she believes that one can easily be driven crazy by a partner whom one loves.