Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use American English Template:Infobox film A Walk on the Moon is a 1999 American drama film starring Diane Lane, Viggo Mortensen, Liev Schreiber and Anna Paquin. The film, which was set against the backdrop of the Woodstock festival of 1969 and the United States's Moon landing of that year, was distributed by Miramax Films. Directed by Tony Goldwyn in his directorial debut, the film was acclaimed on release. Diane Lane earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Female Lead for her performance.

PlotEdit

Pearl Kantrowitz and her husband Marty are a lower middle class Jewish couple in New York City. For the summer of 1969, the couple go on their annual vacation at Dr. Fogler's Bungalows in the Catskills with their family, which includes teen daughter Alison, young son Danny, and Marty's mother Lillian.

Marty, who works as a television repairman back in the city, can only visit his family at the camp on the weekends. Pearl, who got pregnant with Alison at 17 and quickly married Marty, feels at a crossroads in her life. She meets Walker Jerome, a free-spirited salesman who goes from resort to resort selling clothes. With Marty absent, Pearl starts spending more time with Walker and they begin an affair.

Meanwhile, Alison undergoes her own summer of changes and experiences teenage rites of passage—her first period, her first date, and her first kiss with Ross Epstein, a boy at the camp.

The impending Moon landing has kept Marty busy at his job, as customers are anxious to have their TV sets ready for the historic event. While the whole town celebrates Neil Armstrong's first steps on the moon, Pearl and Walker screw in his bus. Marty's mother Lillian learns of the affair and tries to persuade Pearl to break it off. But the affair continues when Marty cannot visit on the weekend because of the traffic jams caused by the huge Woodstock festival, which is taking place within walking distance of the bungalow colony.

Pearl sneaks off in the night to go to the festival with Walker, leaving the kids with a disappointed Lillian. Alison soon sneaks off as well to attend the festival with her friends, although her mother had explicitly forbidden her to do so. When Alison happens to see Pearl, on LSD, carousing topless with Walker in the festival crowd, she becomes upset and leaves with Ross.

Lillian phones Marty in the morning, simply telling him to find some way through the miles-long gridlock to return to the bungalows. When Pearl returns that evening, Marty confronts her, learning that she is having ann affair that is a punchlineTemplate:Sndshe is screwing the traveling salesman, Walker. Alison also has an emotional confrontation with Pearl. Pearl is forced to deal with her love of her family and her conflicting yearning for marital freedom.

Pearl decides to stay with Marty and tells Walker she can’t go away with him. Walker says he understands. The final scene shows Pearl and Marty dancing together, first to Dean Martin's "When You're Smiling" and then to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze", after Marty changes the radio station.

CastEdit

Template:Cast listing

ProductionEdit

DevelopmentEdit

Playwright Pamela Gray, inspired by her own experiences vacationing with her family in a Catskills bungalow colony as a youth, first wrote the script in 1992.<ref name=jweekly>Template:Cite news</ref> Gray said, "I remember sitting by the pool in Dr. Locker’s bungalow colony and watching the hippies walk by on the way to Woodstock. And it was this time warp. We’ve got women playing mah-jongg and canasta and the guys are playing pinochle. We are this little ‘50s enclave, and everything outside was in the 1960s."<ref name=":0">Template:Cite news</ref> The script was originally titled "The Blouse Man" and won the national Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award.<ref name=":1">Template:Cite news</ref>

Gray was unsuccessful in getting the script produced, as financiers told her the story was "too small, too soft, not universal, and too Jewish."<ref name=":0" /> Years later, actor Tony Goldwyn, the grandson of Samuel Goldwyn, came across the script by coincidence and was immediately drawn to the story's themes of midlife identity crises and coming-of-age against the backdrop of the 1960s counterculture.<ref name=":2">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Said Goldwyn, ''You suddenly see your life laid out in front of you. And you say, 'Is this the life I dreamed of having? Am I the person I wanted to become?' If the answer's no, that's a very scary moment. And sometimes what it takes to deal with that is very risky: it requires shattering the status quo."<ref name=":1" />

Goldwyn originally intended to only produce, but after not finding a director who shared his passion for the story, decided to direct the film himself.<ref name=":1" />

FilmingEdit

The film was shot in the Laurentian Mountains in eastern Canada over a period of 36 days in the summer of 1997.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Liev Schreiber based his character Marty on his own grandfather.<ref name=":0" />

SoundtrackEdit

{{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=soundtrackA Walk on the MoonVarious ArtistsMarch 23, 1999Rock, folk rock54:40Sire Recordsx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}}

The soundtrack for the film was released March 23, 1999 through Sire Records. It contains sixteen tracks.<ref name=allmusic/>Template:Music ratings

Template:Track listing

ReleaseEdit

Before its release, the film secured distribution from Miramax.<ref name=":2" /> It was first shown at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where an enthusiastic reception convinced Miramax to release the film theatrically that spring.<ref name=":2" />

A Walk on the Moon went into limited release on March 26, 1999, and expanded nationwide through the month of April.<ref name=":3" /> Its worldwide box office total was $4,750,660.<ref name=mojo/>

Critical receptionEdit

A Walk on the Moon received positive reviews among critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film an approval rating of 73% based on 37 reviews, with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus states: "An impressive showcase for Diane Lane and an assured debut from director Tony Goldwyn, A Walk on the Moon finds absorbing period drama within a family at a crossroads."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 22 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune wrote that the film "becomes something larger and deeper as we watch" and that the character of Allison is an obvious surrogate for screenwriter Pamela Gray.<ref name="Wilmington">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He added that what makes A Walk in the Moon interesting is its refusal to take sides or villainize any one person given that it "is about that old '60s polarity -- the hip and the square, the trapped and the free."<ref name="Wilmington" /> Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post praised Diane Lane's "capacity to express the yearning that Pearl feels as authentically as the guilt she suffers."<ref name=Hunters>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He also described Marty as a "schlumph".<ref name=Hunters/> Janet Maslin of The New York Times wrote, "Even when it turns turbulent, the film sustains its warm summer glow, and makes itself a conversation piece about the moral issues it means to raise."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Ty Burr of Entertainment Weekly gave a more mixed review and criticized the film's ending, but noted "'A Walk on the Moon' still nails the cultural crosscurrents of 1969 — the way that a woman who has been walking the straight and narrow for years could suddenly give in to all the freedom rushing by around her."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Desson Howe, also of the Washington Post, found the film "a little too perfect and symbolically signposted for its own good".<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Roger Ebert gave a mixed review but singled out Anna Paquin’s performance, saying her plot line “as a teenage girl struggling with new ideas and raging hormones” is the film’s most compelling story.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Readers of Entertainment Weekly ranked the film as #9 on the magazine's "50 Sexiest Movies Ever" poll in 2008.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

AccoladesEdit

Award Category Recipient(s) Result Template:Abbr
Chlotrudis Awards Best Supporting Actor Liev Schreiber Template:Nom Template:Align
Independent Spirit Awards Best Female Lead Diane Lane Template:Nom Template:Align
National Board of Review Awards Special Recognition for Excellence in Filmmaking Template:Won Template:Align
Satellite Awards Best Screenplay – Original Pamela Gray Template:Nom Template:Align
Young Artist Awards Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress Anna Paquin Template:Nom Template:Align
YoungStar Awards Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama Film Template:Nom Template:Align

Musical adaptationEdit

Pamela Gray adapted her script into a stage musical, with music and lyrics by Paul Scott Goodman and AnnMarie Milazzo.<ref name=jerseystage/> The musical was first staged by the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco in June 2018.<ref name=jweekly/> The musical was set to debut at the George Street Playhouse in New Jersey in 2020 but was delayed due to COVID-19 restrictions.<ref name=jerseystage>Template:Cite news</ref> The play ultimately opened on April 26, 2022 presented by the George Street Playhouse.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

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