THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 30, 1995 TAG: 9509300036
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
FOUR PARTICULARLY gifted actresses and one surprisingly charismatic rock star take unusual chances in going for all the emotions and soul-searchings that are at the center of ``Moonlight and Valentino.''
Cynics will sharpen their knives and be ready to carve it up. Any movie that wears its varied hearts so vulnerably is likely to be derisively labeled a ``woman's picture.''
Honesty, though, knows no gender and there is much in ``Moonlight and Valentino'' that suggests thought and depth. The characters, in the hands of these actresses, may be ``types,'' but they are believable types. In its genre, this film is much better than the overpraised ``Joy Luck Club'' or the upcoming, highly publicized ``How to Make an American Quilt.''
Elizabeth Perkins, a much underappreciated actress, plays a college teacher who goes into near-shock when her husband is killed by a passing car. He was out jogging. Her friends, initially, aren't much help - possibly because they have problems of their own. Whoopi Goldberg is her eccentric best friend, a neighbor who constantly thinks that her marriage (to Peter Coyote) is in trouble. Perkins' younger sister, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, is a chain smoker who wears black all the time to keep up her mourning for their long-dead mother. Kathleen Turner plays a successful businesswoman who yearns to control the women the same way she controls a board room.
All this isn't nearly as dreary as it sounds. The women wisecrack a lot, and at the most unlikely times.
There isn't a weak performance in the lot. Perkins was so good in ``Big'' with Tom Hanks and ``. . . About Last Night'' that she should have been given parts this good before now. Paltrow is the rookie of the year among movie actresses. She's a unique find - not really beautiful but possessing a gawky kind of sureness. Here, she's a virgin who, after picking up a college lad, asks her sister to explain the secrets of moaning during sex.
Whoopi has played eccentricity before but she tones it down a bit here in an effort to suggest paranoia and wisdom at the same time. She's very funny.
Turner, who has become matronly just at the time we expected her to be the movies' new hope for a femme fatale, takes more chances than anyone in playing the potentially unlikable business woman. She convinces us that she could be this successful and still seek the love of her two stepdaughters.
All the women are put into a flutter by the tight-jeaned presence of a house painter, played by rock star Jon Bon Jovi. He affects them much in the way the William Holden character affected the female community in William Inge's ``Picnic.'' Bon Jovi is not yet an actor, but he doesn't have to be here. He just poses, hunk-style, and gets away with it because he is used so sparingly. He can have a film career, if he wants it.
Based on the death of her own husband, the script was written by Ellen Simon, the daughter of playwright Neil Simon. She knows how to slip comedic zingers into serious situations - a method much-used by her father (who just happens to be the most commercially successful playwright of all time).
Those who hated the TV series ``thirtysomething'' will probably also dislike this movie (although this has a great deal more humor). Those, however, who liked ``Steel Magnolias'' will like this. Amateur psychiatrists everywhere will also like it. Guys who are not shy of emotions will have no problem with it.
The director, David Anspaugh, usually directs sports flicks, like ``Hoosiers'' and ``Rudy.'' The competitive sport here is no less tense.
Admittedly, things almost go too far in the final scene. Even this finale, though, can be admired for the writer and director's choice to go for big emotions in an open and unashamed way.
``Moonlight and Valentino'' fairly glows with the effort to grasp a little pleasure from all the traumas that life often throws at us. In the process, the four actresses provide some large pleasures. ILLUSTRATION: MOVIE REVIEW
``Moonlight and Valentino''
Cast: Elizabeth Perkins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jon Bon Jovi, Whoopi
Goldberg, Kathleen Turner, Peter Coyote
Director: David Anspaugh
Screenplay: Ellen Simon, based on her play
Music: Howard Shore
MPAA rating: R (some language, sexual situations)
Mal's rating: 3 stars
Locations: Greenbrier 13 in Chesapeake; Lynnhaven Mall and
Pembroke in Virginia Beach.
by CNB