# Man in the Moon, The (1991)

### reviewed by
Mark R. Leeper

                                 THE MAN IN THE MOON
                           A film review by Mark R. Leeper
                            Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper

              Capsule review:  This is the story of a salt-of-the-
         earth sort of family in Louisiana in the 1950s, and
         especially Dani, a 14-year-old with a crush on the 17-year-
         old boy next door.  Two good performances and good
         photography are sold short by melodramatic plot twists.
         Rating: low +1 (-4 to +4).

It is 1957 in rural Louisiana. Fourteen-year-old Dani Trant (played by Reese Witherspoon) is just at the awkward age when she is approaching womanhood and thinks she has neither looks nor intelligence. She envies her older sister Maureen (played by Emily Warfield), who is attractive and gets good grades. Then her father's old girlfriend, now a widow, moves in next door, bringing her own family including a seventeen-year-old son, Court Foster (played by Jason London). Court and Dani become good friends. Their friendship begins platonically, but Dani gets a crush on Court and is anxious to push things just a bit further. All by itself this relationship causes problems between Dani and her father Matthew (played by Sam Waterston). However, more family strains start to show when Court discovers Maureen, a Trant daughter his own age.

Robert Mulligan directs this story with all the sensitivity he can muster. And sensitivity is certainly what the plot needs, since it is perilously close to being a trashy Southern passions sort of melodrama. In different hands this story could have been another GOD'S LITTLE ACRE. However, this is avoided, thanks to good acting on the parts of Reese Witherspoon and especially Sam Waterston. As Matthew, Waterston seems uneasy with the responsibility of fatherhood. By turns he is authoritarian or compassionate, but neither with real conviction.

The most unfortunate aspect of the film is a melodramatic turn toward the end of the film. the two sisters are headed for conflict in one way when the all too obvious hand of the scriptwriter distorts things. It leaves the conflict but warps it into a different one, and one that may be more quickly resolved. The last twenty minutes of the film are the least satisfying.

Photography is by the excellent Freddie Francis, whose credits as cinematographer include THE INNOCENTS, THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMAN, and GLORY. Overall the good moments of the film do not quite overcome its weaknesses. I give it a low +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

                                            Mark R. Leeper
                                            att!mtgzy!leeper
                                            leeper@mtgzy.att.com
    .

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