The Man in the Moon [Blu-ray]

Director: Robert Mulligan Robert Mulligan

Overview

In its elegiac nostalgia for the days of childhood innocence, Robert Mulligan's The Man in the Moon recalls another of Mulligan's earlier films, To Kill A Mockingbird. Set in a Louisiana backwater town in the 1950s, the film chronicles the coming-of-age of a young teenage girl. Dani (Reese Witherspoon) is a fourteen-year-old girl who shares a room with her seventeen-year-old sister Maureen (Emily Warfield). During hot summer nights, they sleep on the screened-in back porch of their home, talking about romance, the future, and the meaning of life. Moving into the house next door is a handsome seventeen-year-old boy, Court Foster (Jason London). Court meets Dani at the local swimming hole and they are immediately attracted to each other; through Court, Dani experiences her first true and perfect love. But when Court meets Maureen, the sparks really fly and Maureen falls in love with him too. Now Maureen is torn between holding back her love for Court or accepting his love and betraying her sister. A tragic event makes Maureen's mind up for her.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/30/2021
UPC:	0850035985014
Original Release:	1991
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	Sandpiper Pictures
Language:	English
Sales rank:	13,161

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Reese Witherspoon	Dani Trant
Jason London	Court Foster
Sam Waterston	Matthew
Tess Harper	Abigail
Emily Warfield	Maureen
Gail Strickland	Marie
Ernie Lively	Will
Bentley Mitchum	Billy
Dennis Letts	Doc White
Earleen Bergeron	Mrs. Sanders
Anna Chappell	Mrs. Taylor
Brandi Smith	Missy Trant
Derek Ball	Foster Twin,Foster Twin
Shari Rhodes	Actor
James Howard	Composer

Technical Credits

Frank Norwood

Jenny Wingfield

Robert Mulligan	Director
Mark Rydell	Producer
William S. Gilmore	Executive Producer
Shari Rhodes	Executive Producer,Casting
Larry Holt	Stunts
Joan Moio	Stunts,Stunts
Neil Stockstill	Special Effects
Frank Norwood	Screenwriter
Jenny Wingfield	Screenwriter
Jeremy London	Stunts

Editorial Reviews

Director Robert Mulligan returns with great success to the stomping grounds of adolescent angst that proved so richly fruitful for him with To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and The Summer of '42 (1971). The director's facility with young actors is proven again with a knockout performance from talented teenager Reese Witherspoon, delivering a fully developed, remarkably self-assured turn alongside such intimidating veteran thespians as Sam Waterston and Tess Harper. Lacking in the sort of high-concept appeal that tugs modern audiences into theaters, Mulligan's highly literary film is more of a short story than a novel, but that doesn't detract from its power. In fact, The Man in the Moon (1991) is the sort of sun-dappled country piece deceptively robust with high emotion that might be written by Horton Foote and directed by Robert Benton. Praise for a homespun drama doesn't get much higher than that.

All Movie Guide - Karl Williams