The Automatik

I think previews should be banned. More often than not, they give away all of the best plot points, scenes and dialogue and can be more emotionally affecting than the actual film. That isn’t to say that I found Moonlight Mile a total disappointment. In fact, I was really impressed by the way all of the characters conveyed such realistic emotions with simple gestures instead of verbal histrionics. When Joe Nast (Jake Glyllenhall) walks into his would-be father-in-law Ben’s living room and asks Ben if he wouldn’t rather turn the light, he’s met with the dreaded “we need to talk” line. You can see Joe’s shoulders tense and you can feel his face blanch even though he’s only visible in heavy shadow.

Some scenes, like Joe’s admission of the truth about he and his dead fianc�e Diana’s relationship, are powerful. Also effective is the way the flippant JoJo Floss (Susan Sarandon), Diana’s mother, finally breaks down and admits how much pain she’s in. Dustin Hoffman as JoJo’s husband Ben, shouts at his hungover and obviously upset wife and it feels so real and uncomfortable that it made me squirm. Complex issues are brought to the fore in ways which force you to realize their implications without having them spelled out for you.

However, sometimes too much is implied through facial expressions and innuendo or soundtrack music. There were times when I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on, when a look or a sentence seemed heavy with meaning that was passing right over my head, but not because I was too slow to catch it. And yes, the movie takes place during the early 70′s. But that shouldn’t be an excuse to cram the film with every cool 70s tune; this isn’t The Big Chill or even Almost Famous. That being said, the preview, with Elton John’s “Someone Saved My Life Tonight” made me tear up all five times I saw it, though the song was never in the film. That’s my real disappointment with Moonlight Mile: a preview, masterfully edited, including dialogue and scenes that weren’t even in the movie, led me to believe that there would be some heartwrenching emotional catharsis going on. But that’s not what Moonlight Mile is about. It’s really about the every day ways you cope with death and loss. So in that respect, it succeeds quite well, but I wanted more.