Shoot the Moon (1982)

There have been motion pictures made about the collapse of marriages. Scenes froth with denial, anger, depression, to bitter custody battles and destructive emotions of jealousy and abuse.  Some that comes to mind like Scenes from a Marriage (1974), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), An Unmarried Woman (1979), and more recently A Marriage Story (2019). But none of them in my opinion quite captured the confusion, heartbreak, and turmoil like  Shoot the Moon (1982). The phrase "shoot the moon," comes from the card game hearts. It refers to taking a risk when playing your hand to achieve a higher score.  

 

Directed by Alan Parker (Bugsy Malone, Midnight Express, Fame) and written by Bo Goldman (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Melvin, and Howard). The film depicts an intense look at marital disintegration from the perspective of both parents and their children. Parker and Goldman called upon their marriages to create the screenplay. The late Albert Finney and Diane Keaton are The Dunlaps. After 15 years and four daughters, their marriage falls apart. it also stars Karen Allen, fresh off of Raiders of the Lost Ark, Peter Weller and the late Dana Hill, who gives a heartbreaking performance as the oldest daughter.

 

Set against a wet and foggy San Francisco, the Dunlaps live in a ranch house (which was a 114-year-old Roy ranch house, moved and rebuilt).  As George (Finney) and Faith (Keaton) are both getting ready for an International Book Awards dinner, their oldest daughter Sherry (Hill) overhears a phone conversation between her dad and his lover. At the awards, the mood is tense. By morning, George and Faith have it out and he moves in with Sandy (Black). He sees off his daughters at school but Sherry (the oldest), doesn't want to have anything to do with her unfaithful father. Meanwhile, Faith starts an affair with Frank (Peter Weller), a contractor who has been hired to build a tennis court on their property. But as Faith seemingly is moving forward, George grows increasingly unstable and violent. I must warn those who haven't seen the film, that there are scenes of violence and abuse that can be hard to watch.

 

 

This is not the usual Keaton, known for playing neurotic and quirky characters. Drawing from her recent breakup with Warren Beatty, she gives an emotionally naked performance. As a result, she garnered a Golden Globe, a National Society of Film Critics, and, a New York Film Critics Circle nomination.

 

As for Finney, I couldn't believe this was the same actor that played the gruff but lovable Daddy Warbucks in Annie (also in 1982). He's anguished and fragile yet disturbingly brutal. He also received nominations from British Academy Film Awards and the Golden Globes.

Albert Finney's thoughts on his character, 

"It required personal acting; I had to dig into myself. When you have to expose yourself and use your own vulnerability, you can get a little near the edge. Scenes, where Diane Keaton and I have to go at each other, reminded me of times when my behavior has been monstrous."

 

On my first screening of the film a few years after its release, I remembered how it hitting so close to home because my parent's marriage also ended in 1982.  Upon re-visiting the film for this review, I forgot how quiet it is. The non-explosive scenes that lingered on with no dialogue hit me right in the gut. Shoot the Moon is up there on my list of most under-appreciated films. Film critic writes Andrew Gleiberman, “To this day, the film touches nerves about what the end of a marriage is really about that virtually no film has approached since.” 

 

 

 

Letter welcoming the production to Shoot to the Moon