Serious Moonlight 2009

    Louise wants to find a way to reconnect with her husband Ian.  He is divorcing her after many years of marriage.  When she surprises him at their country home, she is more than slightly dismayed that the roses and romantic set-up are not for her but for his much younger mistress.  Louise takes matters into her own hands!!  She abducts Ian and duct tapes him to the toilet.  He must admit his true feelings and state that he is unable to leave her!!  Things grow exceedingly awry for everybody when a burglar shows up at their house.  Then, everyone must discover and admit to their true feelings. 

     I watched Serious Moonlight mainly because it was written by Adrienne Shelly.  This dark comedy is entertaining but a lot more disturbing than I think it was meant to be.  This is because I found it impossible not to draw some eerie parallels between the story and Shelly's tragic death.  Usually Meg Ryan tends to play simpering and cloying characters?   At the beginning of the film I was optimistic because she seemed to be playing a very different kind of role.  But, just a few minutes into the plot she completely reverted to her standard type of acting.  3* (This movie is OK)

     There is also a book with the same title written by Jean Bennett.  The story in the book is that after an awkward first encounter, Birdie and Daniel are forced to work together in a Seattle hotel.  A famous author leads a mysterious and secluded life while living in the same hotel.  This is a romantic contemporary novel from the author of Alex Approximately.

81 min Comedy directed by Cheryl Hines and written by Adrienne Shelly with Meg Ryan, Timothy Hutton, Kristen Bell, Justin Long, Derek Carter, Bill Parks, Kimberlee Peterson, Nathan Dean, Andy Ostroy.

Note:  Imdb 5.4* out of 10* with 7864 reviews, Rotten Tomatoes 22% with 37 critic reviews 25% with 2500+ audience scores, Metacritic 36 out of 100 with 16 critic reviews 5.1 out of 10 with 9 user scores, The Austin Chronicle 2* out of 5*, 2.4* out of 5*, Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 130 reviews.  

Special Note:  The ending is dedicated to actor and director Adrienne Shelly, the writer of this film.  She was murdered in 2006 when she caught a man that had broken into her office and he was stealing money from her purse.  Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton co-started together before in the film French Kiss of 1995.  The opening plot is similar, he was leaving her for another woman and she was trying to win him back.  
Mistakes:  When taped to the toilet, Ian says, "I could care less!".  The expression is, "I couldn't care less".  In the scene where Sara arrives and Louise has to tape Ian, the tape almost touches his left side-burn.  When coming back to the house, the tape now is away from his side-burn?  During the bathroom scene, when the mirror is broken the mirror glass shatters all over the floor.  Subsequent scenes show the characters rolling on the floor and apparently unharmed by the multitude of glass shards?  Cue the cleaning woman's entry!!