A Walk on the Moon (1999) User Reviews

A Walk on the Moon

[melanielellis · 8/10 · 22 July 2005]

I really enjoyed this movie. I think the soundtrack is amazing and appropriate although "Helplessly Hoping" is a cover of the CSNY classic. Still, we have Jefferson Airplane, Jesse Colin Young, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, and Richie Havens to drop a few names. Listen to the lyrics in this movie...apply them to how Pearl, Diane Lane's character is feeling... Diane Lane does a wonderful job of portraying a 60's housewife who, like so many other women of the time, found herself in a life she fell into. She meets a man who reminds her of who she wanted to be...of feelings she forgot she had. Movies aren't obligated to be lessons on morality, rather they are slices of the lives we all lead or dream of leading or hope to never lead. Some of the scenes in this movie are so powerful-they really rattle the soul. The love scene at the waterfall is wonderfully scored with the amazing "Cactus Tree" by Joni Mitchell. One can feel Pearl's guilt and confusion coupled with an excitement and verve for life she truly deserves. We see Pearl come of age metaphorically as she searches her heart to find out who she truly is. I recommend checking this one out and watching with an open heart and an open mind...the music alone is worth it.

A Tasty 'Period Piece' from the 1960s!

[gradyharp · 8/10 · 20 May 2005]

A WALK ON THE MOON as written by Pamela Gray ("Music of the Heart") and directed by actor Tony Goldman conjures up more atmosphere for the year 1969 than any film to date. Remember Woodstock, the Jewish summer retreats in the Catskills, hippies, face and body painting, threats from the Vietnam era and promises of space habitation by the famous first walk on the moon? It is all faithfully created here as the background for a lovely little sentimental tale about family and fidelity.

The Kantrowitz family - Pearl (Diane Lane), Marty (Liev Schreiber), Alison (Anna Paquin), Daniel (Bobby Boriello) and Marty's mother Lilian (Tovah Feldshuh) - are spending their usual summer away form New York in a Catskill settlement bungalow along with other Jewish families of the same ilk. All seems swell, except that Marty must spend the weekdays returning to his job as a TV repairman, leaving the family under Pearl's and Lilian's care until his weekend visits. A hippie blouse salesman Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen) peddles his wares to the settlement and casually but inevitably Pearl feels an attraction to Walker, the man of adventure who represents all the lost dreams of becoming a mother and wife at the too early age of 17. Life has slipped her by but feels salvageable in Walker's advances.

Woodstock is close by and Pearl and Walker spend a day of hippie love-in in the crowd, not knowing that teenage Alison is also there observing their free love antics. This crisis event affects the family's unity and the way Pearl faces her moment of indiscretion with Marty and her children builds to a terrific climax.

Diane Lane, Viggo Mortenson, Liev Schreiber and Tovah Feldshuh completely inhabit these simple characters and pull us into accepting all aspects of the predicament of this family crisis. The confrontation among Lane, Schreiber and Mortenson is a trio of acting not to be forgotten. Tony Goldwyn has paced his film beautifully and proves that he has as great skill as a director as well as an actor. The cinematography by Anthony B. Richmond is as recreative of a special time on our history as has been captured. This little film will stay with you long after the credits are over. Grady Harp

Realistic, well-acted, character-centered drama and romance

[chron · 8/10 · 7 November 1999]

I like movies with a good character-centered plot and this certainly qualifies. So many Hollywood movies have a distinctly evil antagonist and a pure protagonist. There is no "bad guy" in this movie. All of the people have a side that I could relate to, but they make mistakes along the way.

In all a very good film

Glad I finally had the courage to watch this film

[pdianek · 22 January 2003]

Warning: Spoilers ahead!

"Sometimes I just wish I was a whole different person," Pearl Kantrowitz (Diane Lane) tells her friend in an unguarded moment of "A Walk On The Moon". The friend's reaction? "Yuck."

Exactly.

Long review coming -- so sit, already!

When this movie's trailers came out in 1999, I cringed, avoided the film, walked past its posters with my eyes averted. I had divorced the year before, within the years of my marriage had unfortunately been a deceived wife, and had no desire to re-visit that pain. Fast-forward to 2003: Having grown a great deal, I decided to rent what I had avoided. I'm so glad I did. "A Walk on the Moon" is a lovely, authentic film with a light-seeming yet solid screenplay, great direction, and fabulous acting by a talented cast. (Watch the expressions of Diane Lane and Viggo Mortensen, which subtly change to portray rainbows of emotions within a few seconds.)

The Kantrowitzes (culturally though not particularly religiously Jewish) have rented for the umpteenth summer one of many tiny lakeside cottages owned by a Dr. Fogler in the Catskills. Friends they've met over the years there also rent near them. Their children (Alison, 14 -- Anna Paquin in a totally believable performance -- and Danny, 6) stay there during the week while their father Marty (Liev Schreiber) drives back and forth from NYC and his job as a TV repairman. Caring for the children is their paternal grandmother, Lilian (Tovah Feldshuh -- wonderful!), and their mother Pearl (Diane Lane). Pearl is 32, we learn, and Marty perhaps a year or two older. It is the summer of 1969 -- culture, music, mores are changing, and the whole family is caught up in a loss of innocence.

Into their enclave of mah-jongg and Sinatra comes hippie-ish Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen), the new "Blouse Man" -- a relaxed-attitude businessman, he's bought the bus from the former blouse-man, and drives a circuit, making unscheduled stops at Dr. Fogler's to sell blouses and scarves, and later, at Pearl's suggestion (clearly she knows something about retailing, perhaps from her family-of-origin), sunglasses and jewelry. We learn very little about Walker -- who possesses the mannerly, shy diffidence and "that's cool" attitude which characterized some people of the late-1960s but was often used to disguise inner struggle and pain -- although he lives alone nearby, has a vegetable garden, and reads the book "A Place in the Woods" (still in print, this 1969 account by Helen Hoover details how she and her husband left their jobs in Chicago to pioneer back-to-the-land in northwoods Minnesota). We also learn that Walker's soldier-or-spook kid brother has been missing in Southeast Asia for four years.

Some reviewers below mention that Pearl leads a content, middle- (or even upper-middle-) class life. Not true. The Kantrowitzes do not have much money (why else would Pearl's mother-in-law live with them in what, judging from the neighborhood -- first minutes of the movie -- is an apartment? And did you see the car's interior on the drive up to Fogler's? The reason Pearl walks quite a way to the kosher butcher, getting caught in rain, is that Marty's taken their one car back to NYC.). Marty repairs TVs, but doesn't even own the business.

The back story, mentioned in passing by the grandmother and Pearl, is that one summer as a teen, Pearl visited one of the posh Catskills resorts with her family (recall the lakeside resort of "Dirty Dancing" or the even posher Grossinger's). Marty worked there that summer as a waiter, earning salary and tips to attend college, then perhaps med school. Marty spotted Pearl, was enthralled, they began to see each other over the weeks, she'd never had a boyfriend before, they made love, she got pregnant the first time. At 17. In getting pregnant then (remember how illegal and dangerous abortion was in the summer of 1954 -- when Alison would have been conceived, if she's now 14 in the summer of 1969), in deciding to marry a young man at whom her parents were probably appalled, given their hopes for the lovely young Pearl, in becoming a wife and mother so very early, Pearl has missed out on a great deal of life. (As has, of course, Marty, who gave up his educational plans to support wife and daughter.)

Now, this summer, Pearl's daughter has her first period. This is a major moment for a mom, as well. Put anthropologically, Pearl is no longer the only female of reproductive age in the house. Therefore, as happy as she is about her daughter's growth, she also feels older. (At a mere 32, an age when many women nowadays are just marrying.)

Having personally experienced what infidelity does to a family and to the betrayed spouse from a vantage point similar to Marty's, I'll say right now that the decision to be unfaithful is a poor one. (Cliche but true: You can't solve problems within a marriage by going outside it.) It's clear, however, that Pearl has been trying to let Marty know that there IS a problem. It's just that she doesn't know how to bang him over the head with it, and, like most wives, wants to preserve peace. (What's the price of peace? Oh, yes, eternal vigilance.)

Several reviewers below (male, I think) sound puzzled: what makes Walker seem so attractive to Pearl? Okay, guys, here's a partial list: Walker Jerome is: handsome and Aryan-looking (in the 1960s, Jewish girls were still taught that sex was the only thing Christian boys wanted); blond, long-haired and semi-bearded, therefore exotic to Pearl; soft-spoken; polite; gracious; good-humored and smiles easily; listens to Pearl; clearly admires her physically; takes her suggestions and thanks her for them; more relaxed than Marty; a man who seems to genuinely like women; courtly; sensual (watch his hands, and his intensity when he and Pearl finally make love); kind to others (e.g., his resolution of the blouse argument between Lilian and Selma), including kids; helpful (as with Danny's wasp stings -- the irony here! since "Walker Jerome" is an incredibly WASPy name, and he's certainly "stung" Pearl). Even Lilian, Marty's mother, displays a certain amount of respect and gratitude toward Walker when his wasp-sting techniques turn out to be better than hers. In fact, Walker really does embody many Boy Scout virtues. (No one in this film is obviously given to evil -- though good people can certainly do unhealthy things.)

Walker wants Pearl, but she has to make the first move. As he gets to know her, his feelings for her grow -- they're mainly visible through his eyes and mouth. He can't offer her marriage, nor children -- she has the one, and would clearly prefer not to have more kids. He does offer something new: making love outside, sleeping under the stars, a bodily connection and sensuality she's never known. But he knows it's Pearl's decision. Will she remain in her marriage, or not? If she does, will it be from love -- or from obligation? If she doesn't, will she come with him out West? (When he suggests that they take her kids, too, she looks close to melting.)

Although Pearl feels attracted to Walker from the first time their eyes meet, she does not act on that by phoning to meet him until AFTER:

-- She asks her husband Marty to request more time off from his boss, so she can be with Marty more this summer at the lake, but Marty refuses even to ask;

-- She suggests to Marty that they "experiment" a little in their lovemaking, but instead of rejoicing in a sexually-interested wife, he asks what's "wrong with the way we've been doing it", and then, childlike, dresses up in their son Danny's cowboy hat and pistols;

-- Alison reveals that her first menstrual period has begun, and then that she has her first date;

-- Marty calls from New York to say that he can't come up this weekend, he'll be fixing TVs for people who want to watch the Apollo moon walk;

-- Pearl experiences the really yucky part of being a mom (Alison, told she's not permitted to camp out at Woodstock, screams, "I hate you!"), and naturally wants to be perceived as lovable.

As Marty asks later, was Pearl thinking when she began with Walker? Was she thinking of anyone but herself? Probably not. Yet for her, infidelity is so big, so cataclysmic, that it's the accumulation of little hurts that finally turns her toward Walker.

Marty finds out from his mother, and the earlier confrontation between Pearl and her mother-in-law is fascinating. Picking blueberries together, Lilian says to Pearl, "You're shtupping someone....the blouse man." Yet she doesn't try to dissuade Pearl so much on the simple basis of betrayal, her son Marty's prospective hurt feelings, "how could you do this to us?". Instead, she challenges her to act ethically, to be a mensch. Lilian tells Pearl about Marty's dreams, too, so that Pearl will know she hasn't been alone in setting aside her own desires for Alison and Danny. It's a wonderful scene, very mature.

Whether you prefer typical American film conclusions (up) or typical European endings (down), this ending is so bittersweet that, really, you can have it both ways. Pearl and Marty have passed the crossroads. Perhaps they're on a new footing, perhaps they'll learn to be more open with each other. Perhaps not. But they've begun to recognize the truth of their marriage, and how staying stuck in each of their roles has meant the marriage hasn't grown for a while.

Ten years from now, in 1979, perhaps they'll regard this summer as a terribly painful time -- that led them to rekindle their love and attention to each other.

"Love doesn't just sit there like a stone; it has to be made like bread, re-made all the time, made new." -- Ursula LeGuin.

Ending doesn't make sense

[akhilandyy · 6/10 · 31 July 2020]

What one would do if their wife screws up with a salesman? I couldn't get the intention of director to portray walker as gentleman. I mean, Cmon... He made out with a married woman and didn't say a word to her that it's wrong. Poor Marty and kids have to suffer the fantasies of disgusting young lady. She should NEVER NEVER be forgiven. How can one commit such heinous act and get away with it? Divorce must have been the perfect ending.

A movie set in a time where only a subject like this could work...

[moviedude1 · 7/10 · 1 February 2009]

When a family spends the summer of '69 in the Catskills, both mother and daughter find new love interests. Diane Lane stars as a wife and mother who turns to the "blouse man" for affection when her husband can't get out of the city and spend any time with his family. Anna Paquin plays her teenage daughter who comes into her own during this time and needs her mother's emotional stability, which isn't there.

The first thing I ask myself is the reality behind this film. Could this really happen? Yes. Could I believe something like this could happen in Lane's character? Not with her mother-in-law living in the bungalow, as well. It's a nice film based on a time when things were a little simpler, but I don't think the director gave very much opportunity for any of the stars to "give it their all," especially co-star Viggo Mortensen. Bottom line: good plot, great actors, bad fit.

7 out of 10 stars.

Great actors need better director

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 18 May 2014]

It's the summer of 1969. The Kantrowitz Jewish family is vacationing in a holiday camp not far from Woodstock. The father Marty (Liev Schreiber) has to go back to repair TVs in time for the broadcast of the moon landing. Mother Pearl (Diane Lane) feels stymied by a static life. Daughter Alison (Anna Paquin) is a rebellious teen making a new friend with Myra Naidell (Lisa Jakub). Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen) is a traveling salesman selling clothes. Pearl falls for the mysterious salesman and starts an affair. Marty's mother (Tovah Feldshuh) notices.

Diane Lane is a slightly better cheating wife in 'Unfaithful'. This one doesn't quite have the style. It's first time directing for actor Tony Goldwyn. He doesn't really have the eye for it. The story is too ambitious for him. The actors are all doing a good job. There are some great actors here. It's just missing a real vision from the leader in the director's chair. This is more of an actors movie and a romance novel. Also a movie with Woodstock should have more music in it. The sense of place isn't fully achieved. I would have preferred to move away from Woodstock and not have the grand expectations. The smaller family drama is so much more superior anyways.

Well done but not spectacular

[soltysi4 · 6/10 · 4 January 2000]

I was impressed by the fact that this movie was set in the late 1960's yet doesn't overwhelm you with this fact. The story tells itself well against an elegantly-done period background. I was continually amused by the constant interruptions by the loudspeaker ("The knish man is now on the premises!,") in a hilarious vocal cameo by Julie Kavner. As good as the story was, I found some of the plot devices a little too convenient...there were HOW many people at Woodstock, and the daughter just happens to 'pop in' and see her mother there? Overall, though, this was an enjoyable movie that didn't use brute force to tell its tale, but relied instead on a solidly-constructed script.

the best movie I've seen in sometime

[T-10 · 10/10 · 9 August 1999]

A Walk on the Moon was Tony Goldwyn's directorial debut,

and all I can say is MORE! This is an excellently constructed film. The script was written by Pamela Gray is

fantastic. If you like a film with characters who could easily be real in believable situations that you come to care about, then you will love this film. Set in upstate New York in the summer of '69 the movie focuses on the choices and the resulting consequences made by a young woman who feels trapped in her role as wife and mother. That setting with the Vietnam War, social unrest, Woodstock, and the manned moon landing is arguably one of the most interesting times of the 20th Century and woven seamlessly into the film. The soundtrack with songs from the era fits perfectly and is great. The casting and performances were flawless. After seeing the film, I can't imagine anyone else in the roles. This was the first time I had seen Liev Schreiber who plays Marty, the husband, and Viggo Mortensen, the carefree lover. Both were terrific. Tovah Feldshuh, the perceptive earthy mother-in-law, and Anna Paquin, the rebellious daughter, were perfectly cast as well. And Diana Lane as Pearl, the lead, plays her multifaceted role well. I believe this film to be worthy of Academy consideration. The category that comes to mind (and there are others) is best supporting actor for Liev Schreiber. This film is a must see for the baby boom generation. Four stars!!!!

Fireworks, but no sound

[killer_tray · 7/10 · 18 July 2006]

A film of understandment of each other, thats how i see this film.

When we enter the lives of a Jewish middle class family in the summer of 1969, we see a semi happy family. The mother, Pearl, is a content housewife, convince that she should be happy with what she has. The daughter, Alison, a teenager who is convince she knows whats good for her. The father, Marty, believing that what he gave up in his youth was worth it.

Pearl, who discovers that she can make her husband any other then what he is, get caught up in an affair with the blouse man, Walker. During the affair, Pearl constantly seeks her old feelings that she use to have with her husband, that she now shares with Walker.

Alison, also tries to grasps life for all she get out of it, boys, concerts, rebelling against the man. But soon she sees that her mother is also trying to seeks all of life riches, again.

Without a doubt, My fave scene. Marty confronts Pearl, struggling to believe that she would do that after all he gave up. Like any man when this happens, rage takes over and a want to make the other person feel like they do.

Alison finally grows up and sees her birth as almost a reason why this all happened. Her birth was the result of a uncontrollable attraction between her mother and father in their teens. Her father convinced her that what happened between them was love at first sight, and he would not have had it any other way. Alison accepts this, but still shows how young she is by not seeing why they can't make their marriage work.

In the end, you sense that although Marty will never fully forgive Pearl for what she did, that they love each other, and Marty was willing to do anything to stay with her, even if it means dancing to her beat.

Everyone can connect with someone in this movie, Pearl, Marty, Alison, even Daniel the little brother. Every parent only wants there children to have what they didn't, even if it's as simple as a childhood. Everyone wants a bit more then what they have. Everyone questions what they must of done in their to end up where they are now.And Everyone never really lets go of their child/teen-hood.

Unnatural depiction of betrayal

[dev_alok · 4/10 · 11 September 2011]

I am writing this review as a non-American. I have watched other movies about wives betraying their husbands and have liked them. For example I liked Unfaithful also featuring Diane Lane. This particular movie however, I felt was depicting the process of betrayal in very unnatural way. Main character Pearl decides to have an extra marital affair and even when caught does not show the emotions that I would expect from a character like hers. She decides to leave at night while her mother-in- law is asking her not to go. Mother-in-law finds out that she is having an affair but does very little about it. Daughter finds out that her mother is sleeping with another man and she shows her anger for mere two minutes. Husband finds out that wife is screwing another man and he just throws the milk and drives car fast. At the end all are fine. I personally feel that even in American family in 1969 this is not what happens after an extra marital affair. This movie almost seemed like the director was telling the audience that this is how you should behave after having an affair. Very unconvincing story-line.

Incredibly REAL

[BruinSteve · 10/10 · 30 May 2003]

Okay, so I'm surfing the 63 movie channels on my new digital cable......and I hear a voice... It's the loudspeaker of the Catskills bungalows project announcing some esoteric occurrence... You simply had to be there...And I WAS... Forget the glamour of that upscale Catskills resort on "Dirty Dancing"... This was REAL LIFE circa the 1960s...as I, and I'm sure many others remember it from our childhood... (I won't go much into the plot here...that's been covered...it's the FEELING of the movie--the LIFE--that hit me...) Now, I am certain this whole atmosphere will seem bizarre, fairly off kilter to most...But as a Jewish kid born in NYC in 1953, this movie was SO REAL, it was incredible... I swear I was there...no, not in the movie...but in one of those bungalow colonies somewhere in the Catskills in the Summer of '69...close enough to Woodstock to breathe it... And I have never seen a film completely capture the setting as well as this one... Trust me, folks, this is a snapshot in REAL TIME...The characters are right out of my family, my friends...the "resort" is what real life was like for most "working class" NYC families who could squeeze out just enough cash to escape the sweltering NYC summer... There was a point in the "mountains" where my Zayde used to announce "This is as far as the car goes"...He never in his life drove farther from the Bronx than those bungalows... I've watched the movie through twice now and it's just as real every time.

An emotional step back in time

[MOscarbradley · 6/10 · 2 March 2004]

The term "women's picture" is often used to derogatorily describe melodramas about adultery in which the principal protagonist is the wife. Today 'chick-flicks' have become the new women's pictures in which the heroine rather than the hero is to the fore and rather than commit adultery is doing all she can to establish her relationships.

Of course, women's pictures were finally made respectable by the great Douglas Sirk who used the genre to explore the mores of a specific time and place in American culture, and the best women's pictures, such as Michael Curtiz' "Mildred Pierce" are as much about class, status and politics with a small p as they are about relationships. Though not quite in the Douglas Sirk class Tony Goldwyn's "A Walk on the Moon" is a very superior example of the genre, dealing as it does with issues in a wider social and historical context than a mere perfunctory summer romance.

For a start, the film is set in the past (1969, to be exact; the title referring to Niel Armstrong's moon walk and is set, literally, just down the road from Woodstock). And it's pleasures are very much in the detail, not just in the summing up of the seismic changes happening in American society at the time but in the smaller day-to-day things that affect the nuclear family at the centre.

Here it benefits considerably from a quartet of superb performances from Diane Lane and Liev Schreiber as the couple whose marriage (in haste and with regrets on both sides) could so easily end on the rocks, from Anna Paquin as their daughter in the throes of growing up and from Tovah Feldshuh as the Jewish mother-in-law with a gift for observation bordering on second sight. Tony Goldwyn handles the interchanges between these people beautifully so that when the wife finally abandons common-sense as well as her clothes for some steamy business with 'the blouse man' underneath a convenient waterfall, the film transcends cliche and becomes both genuinely erotic and moving.

Stay away! Another Hollywood propaganda film.

[joe_nsx · 1/10 · 19 June 2001]

Any movie that portrays the hard-working responsible husband as the person who has to change because of bored, cheating wife is an obvious result of 8 years of the Clinton era.

It's little wonder that this movie was written by a woman.

The way we were

[savoir · 29 March 2003]

The sixties were a time of great transition. At their beginning was the Peace Corps: a way to help those in need of a better life. At their end it was the me generation: how high can I get or how can I satiate my senses to the fullest. This movie is one of the best "encapsulations" of those events that I've seen.

The moral overtones of the movie are overwhelming. Wrongs occur. Do we run away from them? Do we trash our lives because of them? This movie attempts to address these questions. It does it well.

Finally, what brings it all together? In two words: Diane Lane. She possesses a deep but quiet beauty that makes it work. Her character asks, "I'm approaching middle age. I have children and a good but somewhat boring husband. Is this all there is?"

All ask this question as youth begins to fade. The answer this movie purports makes it exceptional and even classic. A hundred years from our descendants will look at this movie and appreciate its incite in human existence.

Didn't like the ending

[sushantkumar-ce · 6/10 · 16 July 2021]

They shouldn't have get back together after she cheated. This is injustice to the husband character. The story or the ending must have been somewhat different.

I beg to differ with the other reviewer of this movie

[stefanchikm · 7/10 · 19 October 2005]

OK, I will admit that my initial interest in this movie stemmed from a "Viggo-is-God" mentality. He was so great in LOTR, I wanted to see him in other movies. I don't think it's fair to label Diane Lane's character as a slut. You have to be from another century to think that a person is bad because of a single moral indiscretion.

It was pretty obvious to me that she was lonely and depressed because her husband ditched her in this lame Catskills resort for weeks on end, with nothing but the kids and old ladies for entertainment. Oh, and The Blouse Man (Mortensen's character). I mean, who would you pick to hang out with? The love scenes are gloriously shot, but that's all I'll say because this site has a strict spoiler rule. All fans of Mortensen and Lane (and romance) will enjoy this film.

Worth watching, but don't expect too much.

[VilyaEleni · 7/10 · 24 March 2004]

(There may be SPOILERS within.)

I thought this movie was a rather touching story at times, and it was not dull and boring. It was very well acted on behalf of all the actors. The problems that I have with this movie is that I feel they didn't give us a better idea of the relationships between the characters, like, why would Walker want to go off west with Pearl and her children? Was there something more between them than just sex that was not written in the script, or possibly ended up on the cutting room floor? And why did I get the feeling most of the time that Pearl didn't really love her husband all that much? They didn't give us details on their relationship, they inform us that they were married very young when she got pregnant, but do they love each other? I think they should have cut all the pointless scenes with Pearl's daughter and her boyfriend and explained to us more what was going on between Pearl/Marty and Pearl/Walker.

Besides the plot holes that I thought the script had, this movie was okay. It keeps one entertained (Or at least it kept me entertained,) and it was touching at the end. But I do not think I can really get over the unexplained relationships, I think the relationships between characters are very important in a movie, and this one failed to deliver.

All in all, I think I would rate this movie 7/10. Maybe I am giving it more than I should, but it was well acted.

A Touching Slice of Life of the Summer of Woodstock and the Moon Walk

[noralee · 7/10 · 28 October 2005]

"A Walk on the Moon" has a teen in it, but it's definitely a grown-up movie.

It helps to remember 1969 though one does wince at some of the inaccuracies as too much cultural symbolism is thrown into that summer. Hey, where's the rain at Woodstock? - it was only nice weather on the Friday. Some of the music was inaccurate - what were the odds of turning on the radio in 1969 and hearing "Sally Go Round the Roses" from 1962? Why would someone from NYC claim they couldn't afford college and not consider what's now CUNY?

This is Liev Schreiber's first grown-up movie I think; he was quite good in Shakespeare in the Park last summer. Some reviewers bashed the movie because Schreiber is so good (especially as he discovers the power of Dylan and Jimi Hendrix) that one sympathizes with both the adulterer and the cuckold - gee but ain't life complicated, as what comes across is the importance of family.

Too bad the Blouse Man (very appealing Viggo Mortensen) is just basically a hippie and he's not a real person, but everyone else is. Anna Paquin as a teen discovering that her parents are people too was wonderful. Diane Lane's NY accent does waver quite a bit.

I lost my objectivity whenever Tovah Feldshuh spoke. As the grandmother she sounded so much like my grandma, who of course was alive in 1969, that I practically cried every time she was on the screen, though mine had a thicker Yiddish accent.

All in all, a very touching movie.

(Originally written 4/11/1999)

Unfulfilled expectations ?

[mjmarkic · 8/10 · 4 November 2002]

A touching look at life, human weaknesses, missed dreams, and opportunities.

Having read all of the posted reviews, what I find most interesting is the overall male consensus that the film portrays the husband as the guilty party for his wife's dissatisfaction. Being male, I find it hard to believe that so many of my gender feel so weak and betrayed.

Pearl, doesn't blame her husband and only learns to value and understand him better as also having missed out on some of life's potential. Also, I find it hard to accept the moralizing in the reviews. The film is not condoning the illicit relationship, the idyllic couplings and temporary `escape', are photographed as what we dream we've missed. Are acted out fantasies, to be moralized? Pearl knows, the fantasy can't last and a price will be paid.

Haven't we all missed out from time to time? How many men have fantasized (and acted out) Pearl's actions and expected to be forgiven. Why because they're men??? A well acted, beautifully filmed, and nicely scored remembrance, of the period of self exploration and human frailty.

Cheeky Chick Cinema

[jundev · 6/10 · 9 April 1999]

This chick movie that put the Woodstock Generation on a bad light and just because of that, I hated it. Hey, if the woman in the movie got a seven-year itch, then so be it, but not on the backdrop of Woodstock. Woodstock is spontaneous, and dynamic, it lives in the heart and the mind of the generation of which I am bound. What about the 1969 Republican Convention, that is a good backdrop for this movie.

Should have had a different storyline

[soumitraaust · 1/10 · 29 March 2019]

So his wife cheats and he forgives and starts over again!!! Wow,talk about brainwashing men by showing them trash movies!!! He should have kicked her out, obviously. And the girl's response should have also been very different too,she should have told her father. Talk about brainwashing children by showing them trash movies!!!

very nicely done...captures the times

[MarieGabrielle · 9/10 · 10 June 2014]

This film is the basic story of 1969, Marty and Pearl Kantrowitz a couple who married young and have two children, on vacation in upstate NY. Anything north of the city is "upstate" and they take vacation near the well known "Nevele" and Concord Hotels, only at a more down at heel bungalow campground.

The atmosphere of the Catskills bungalow and the rather tacky but fun atmosphere is realistic. Tovah Feldshuh as Lillian is excellent, she realizes something is amiss with Pearl and lets her son know, calling him in Brooklyn.

The Moon walk itself is secondary to the actual story of America in the turbulent 1960's, Woodstock, and social unrest, but the story is not heavy handed.

Nor is it a complete miss like the faint hearted "1969" film with Robert Downey Jr., which attempts to address the same time period in America, and misses the point. Entirely.

Pearl Kantrowitz, well portrayed by Diane Lane feels something is missing, she has married too young, and subsequently meets Walker Jerome, a hippie who is known as the "Blouse man" (announced over the intercom by Julie Kavner's unmistakable voice ), when he brings his bus of clothing and jewelry to the camp site. Viggo Mortensen as Walker Jerome, is believable as a young man who eventually gets involved with Pearl, hoping for more.

The story rings true because it is simple, but believable and even sad. The affair with him, the ultimate fact that she realizes her life is passing by, but she does love her husband and children as well. and its time to say good bye to lofty dreams. There is a decent soundtrack including Joni Mitchell, and many other gems from that era. Liev Schreiber as Marty Kantrowitz is sympathetic and funny, attempting to dance to Jimi Hendrix at the end of the film.

The story is memorable without cheap sentiment, and a rare thing we see from Hollywood deserves praise. It is not a cheap romantic comedy with over the top actors, just a believable vignette which will touch you as the audience.

During the credits I noticed it was produced by Dustin Hoffman as well as Tony Goldwyn. Well done. 9/10.

Well-crafted on all counts, but that's about it

[DanAZ99 · 7/10 · 28 November 1999]

This is a well-crafted, enjoyable film -- well-acted, well-written, well-directed. In terms of substance, however, it's just a cut or two above your average TV movie of the week. Characters are interesting, and there are crises a-plenty, but with 10 minutes or so to go in the film, everything is neatly wrapped up in a bow and placed at our feet, just so. No muss, no fuss. The film's great saving grace, however, is sharp performances throughout from Liev Schreiber, Diane Lane, Tovah Feldshuh, Viggo Mortenson, and Anna Pacquin.

Houston, We Have A Problem...

[jhclues · 5/10 · 11 March 2001]

The universal theme of coming to terms with the loss of youth and accepting a life of unfulfilled hopes and dreams is explored in `A Walk On the Moon,' directed by Tony Goldwyn. Diane Lane stars as Pearl Kantrowitz, a thirty-one year old mother of two, the oldest of whom, Alison (Anna Paquin), is fourteen; her husband, Marty (Liev Schreiber), is a square shooter who loves his wife and family and provides for them by working long hours in a shop repairing television sets. It's the summer of ‘69, and while on the family's extended vacation-- during which Marty must return to work for the week-- Pearl falls into discontent, and with Woodstock about to happen a mere stone's throw from the campground/resort at which they are staying, she soon succumbs to the siren's song of the ‘60s: The inhibition, freedom and free love-- all of which have been denied her since giving birth to her daughter at age seventeen. There's an honesty to Goldwyn's film, and though he captures the sense of the times in which the story is set fairly well, he nevertheless fails to elicit much sympathy for his leading lady, Lane. Perhaps it's because, though there is much about Pearl with which to identify, her story is just too familiar; her situation is far from being unique, and she has a decent, upper middle-class life, with a loving husband and two great kids. The fact that she started young and that her dreams were never realized is a shame, but it's not like she's the only one to whom such a fate has befallen. And her futile attempt at regaining her lost years comes across as somewhat shallow and decidedly unsympathetic; and without that sympathy the film sputters and finally stalls, even as Neil Armstrong is beginning his historic walk on the Moon. There's no question that Lane is attractive, and physically she fits the role of Pearl perfectly. But she simply doesn't possess the wherewithal to sell her character in this film. The emotional turmoil of what Pearl is experiencing seems restricted to the surface, and she never manages that depth of feeling that would've made the necessary connection with the audience. It's not that Lane is bad in this role, it's just that she's not that good. There are just too many gaps in credibility and too many false moments to be overlooked. It's as if the character throughout remained just beyond her grasp. Liev Schreiber, on the other hand, is outstanding as Marty. You have no trouble believing he is exactly who and what he is supposed to be. This is a character to whom most people will be able to relate, and if only Lane had been able to evoke the same kind or response as Schreiber, it would've made a tremendous difference in the overall aspect of the film. Anna Paquin gives a noteworthy performance as well, successfully capturing the angst of puberty while coping with an ever-changing world. The supporting cast includes Viggo Mortensen as Walker Jerome, the traveling salesman with whom Pearl attempts to reconcile her lost youth; Tovah Feldshuh (Lilian Kantrowitz); Bobby Boriello (Daniel); Stewart Bick (Neil); Jess Platt (Herb); Star Jasper (Rhoda) and Julie Kavner (Voice of the Social Director). There are some poignant moments in Goldwyn's film, and it does generate a certain sense of loss and longing; but overall, `A Walk On the Moon' is at best a momentary diversion that comes across like a finger painting on an impressionist's canvas. That is stays afloat at all is due mainly to Schreiber and Paquin's performances. Other than that, this is-- unfortunately-- a rather forgettable film that never quite attains the level of drama to which it aspires. I rate this one 5/10.