wisewebwoman Review of Moonlight Mile

Moonlight Mile (2002)

Susan Sarandon a knockout in this performance.

[7/10 · 29 September 2002]

She adds total believability as the mother of the murdered daughter. ***Minor spoilers***There was loads to like in this movie, but Jake Gyllenhaal's performance was not one of them, unfortunately. His likeness to Tobey Maguire distracts me and also there was not much to his dialogue in this, he sat, reacted and stared emotionally a lot, which I have seen him do in other movies. Maybe he just has a one note performance that he totes around from movie to movie. He has one brilliant scene however, and this one is not the one in the courtroom that some reviewers loved. This is a scene at a dinner party and it is beautifully scripted and timed. Dustin Hoffman was very good in his role and I really liked how everything was so beautifully understated. Dabney Coleman in a small role was wonderful. I also loved how the compassion and need between Joe and Bertie was managed but I did not like the resolution at the end, I felt cheated. How many words had Bertie and Joe exchanged to make the possibility of a relationship credible ? The lust I can understand, the shared grief also, but "a drop everything and take off together" ending was the easy way out for the script writer for it seems that is what we demand in our movies today. 7 out of 10