There are not many films out today, just a whole lot of "flicks," full of digital effects, used and reused premises and good-looking, simple-minded actors.
This is not the case with "Moonlight Mile," written and directed by Brad Silberling, whose credits include "Felicity," "City of Angels" and "Doogie Howser, M.D." This film is beautifully crafted and relies on talent to get the message across.
"Moonlight Mile" is about a young man, Joe Nast, played by Jake Gyllenbaal, who is dealing with the murder of his fiancÇe. He doesn't have to cope alone. He's still living with his ex-fiancÇe's parents, Ben and Jojo Floss, played by Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon.
In the midst of all this, he starts to fall for a tomboyish-girl, Bertie Knox. Played by Ellen Pompeo, Knox just happens to be dealing with the grief of her own love lost to the Vietnam war.
Gyllenbaal was last seen in Disney's hardly funny, hardly heartwarming comedy, "Bubble Boy." In "Moonlight Mile," he does a beautiful job of bringing dimension to his character. As an actor, he has expanded past cartoonish characters and grown into a surprisingly hot young leading man.
Through much of the film, Gyllenbaal is quiet. During important moments - like when he's on the stand testifying against his fiancÇe's murderer - he finally breaks and gives in to his frustration with all that he's had to endure. In that moment, he tells the truth about why his fiancÇe Diana was in that diner on that day. It's hard to picture Gyllenbaal in a romantic lead, but paired with the simply beautiful Pompeo, it works and it makes us want them to end up together in spite of the circumstances of their meeting.
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There's so much more to "Moonlight Mile" than meets the eye. Finally, a movie that makes you think, feel and realize that being human is not a bad idea. It helps that everything about the film feels real - down to the bench scene where both Ben and Joe are talking and the sunlight fades and reappears as the clouds pass over their heads.
When I first heard about this film, I was hesitant. The movie trailers and the descriptions by publicists and other critics made it seem like "Moonlight Mile" was another one of those useless, depressing tearjerkers that only middle-aged women and feminine men go to watch. This is not so.
This film is really refreshing and even though it dealt with grief, it doesn't make you cry because the characters, like actual people, had more than one emotion in their grieving processes. In each one of their stages - denial, acceptance, etc. - the characters were portrayed with numerous emotions, especially humor.
I wouldn't have expected to laugh at a film like this. .
"Moonlight Mile" is one of those films that could easily be blown off as a "chick flick" because of its publicity, but it lives up to its expectations.
