Serious Moonlight

2009

Action / Comedy / Crime / Drama / Romance

6
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 25% · 38 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 25% · 5K ratings
IMDb Rating 5.3/10 10 9141 9.1K

marriage dark comedy staatsanwältin duct tape woman director

Plot summary

After her adulterous husband asks for a divorce, a high-powered attorney takes him captive, refusing to release him until he commits to working on their marriage together. When his impatient mistress shows up, not to mention an opportunistic gardener, things start to get seriously complicated.

Director

Cheryl Hines Photo
Cheryl Hines

Top cast

Kristen Bell Photo
Kristen Bell as Sara
Justin Long Photo
Justin Long as Todd
Meg Ryan Photo
Meg Ryan as Louise
Timothy Hutton Photo
Timothy Hutton as Ian
720p.BluRay
772.72 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 24 min
Seeds 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by EUyeshima 6 / 10

Off-Kilter Elements Keeps Things Afloat in Adrienne Shelly's Swan Song as a Screenwriter

It's been a full two decades since Meg Ryan emerged from a series of background girlfriend roles to become America's Sweetheart in 1989's "When Harry Met Sally…", but in this strangely conceived 2009 comedy, she still has that undeniable twinkle in spite of all the age-defying cosmetic alterations to her face. The screenplay is the last work of the late actress Adrienne Shelly, who wrote, directed, and co-starred in 2007's agreeably idiosyncratic "Waitress", and what they have in common is her supple dexterity in balancing the off-kilter elements of her stories into something deeper. This time, she takes a darker, less whimsical path in exposing the insidious nature of a marriage that has dissipated from a lack of communication. Her "Waitress" co-star Cheryl Hines ("Curb Your Enthusiasm") takes the helm in her directorial debut, and her lack of experience may attribute to the fact that it feels more like a filmed stage play despite Nancy Schreiber's expert cinematography.The brief story focuses on married couple, Louise and Ian, on a day when they unexpectedly cross paths at their bucolic vacation home. A high-powered fortyish attorney, she comes home to find her house showered romantically with rose petals and Ian writing a Dear Jane letter to her. He has decided after thirteen years of marriage that he wants a divorce, so he can rendezvous with his 24-year-old girlfriend Sarah in Paris. Unwilling to accept that her marriage has gone kaput, Louise inadvertently knocks him out with a flower pot and takes advantage of his unconsciousness in order to duct tape him to a chair until he relents. This is the beginning of a roundelay in which they spar about the merits of their marriage. Ian spends most of the 84-minute running time stuck on the toilet as he faces one humiliation after another. Even though Louise exhibits vaguely sociopathic behavior, she does not represent the only threat to Ian.There is a nasty twist to the story in the form of an interloper that turns their vituperative cat-and-mouse game into a game of survival. The open ending doesn't quite satisfy, although the implications that it raises lends texture to what has gone on before. Ryan acquits herself well as Louise, and although it's not remarkable work, it shows that the actress could thrive into middle-age with her fizzy spirit intact. She manages to give heart to the tenacious hold her character has on her flailing marriage. In a welcome big-screen return as Ian, Timothy Hutton does what he can under a lot of duct tape in a mostly passive role with moments of vented exasperation, while Kristin Bell ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall") shows surprising grit as Sarah, especially toward the end when the women grapple on the bathroom floor. Justin Long provides a menacing edge to the smallish role of the lawn-mowing low-life. More than Hines' workmanlike direction, Shelly's somewhat uneven screenplay offers enough dark elements to make the contrived set-up worth accepting for the sake of the unfolding story she wanted to tell.
Reviewed by muststangman72 6 / 10

Worth a look if you've run out of options.

First off, don't buy this movie unless your a colector of Meg Ryan films etc...Secondly, rent it only when you have rented 90 percent of all the other movies you want to see....Meg Ryan, and I am a fan, was quite good in this film and for that reason only I have rated it a 6 out of 10.I don't want to give away any part of the movie at all however, there is a scene with Timothy Hutton (Ian). I guess its a dream or a flashback, i'm not at all sure how it fits into the film but its half way in and its at least a minute long where most woman will be absolutely shocked that Meg Ryan was part of this filth.My suggestion, watch it with your female friends, most men will only appreciate 1 minute of this shocking film.
Reviewed by dave-sturm 6 / 10

Cute

MAJOR SPOILER AHEAD. THE ENDING WILL BE REVEALED. YOU ARE WARNED.Ahem. This clever rom com is virtually a two-character play and most of it transpires in a bathroom. Early on, I began to sense all was not as it seemed. And it's not.Everything in the movie points to it being a set up by Louise. Let's count the ways -- From the moment she arrived at the house, her whole attitude is fake innocent. Any other woman would be suspicious that her husband had strewn rose petals all over the place, but wasn't expecting his wife.Lawn boy shows up oh so conveniently just after Louise goes into town for food.Lawn boy is listening to music on his riding mower and cannot hear hubby's screams for help or banging on the bathroom window. Where does he decide to shut off the mower and remove his head set? Directly beneath the bathroom window.When Louise returns to the house, her confrontation with lawn boy is entirely off camera. We just see the fishbowl smash and hear her screams and see the alarm on hubby's face. It's all an act by Louise and lawn boy.When lawn boy drags Louise into the bathroom, apparently unconscious, and tapes her up, the husband begins his long, tearful confession that he really loves her. Supposedly she is knocked out and not hearing it, but the camera shows close ups of her face. She does not look unconscious. It is strongly hinted she is hearing this.Lawn boy acts all lustful over Louise, even feeling her up when unconscious. Then he turns to hubby and says something like, "How could you not want this?"If you really want to immobilize someone with duct tape, you tape their hands behind their back, not in front.Louise has her hands duct taped in front of her. There are broken mirror shards on the floor. Hello?When husband said he hoped the crooks would not take the heirloom silver set, a red flag went up and I said, they won't. They didn't. What kind of crooks leave behind a chest of silver sitting in plain sight? And what kind of crooks clean the house of loot, then stick around all night to drink and party? Could it be to give Louise more time with her husband? The only question is, how did Louise find out about the affair? And how did she know hubby was going to be at the house a day early, preparing to fly to Paris in the morning with his girlfriend? I guess we just have to go along.As to the final scene, it could have been better. As Louise, her husband and Lawn Boy pass on the street, what if they exchanged knowing glances, but the husband doesn't see and remains clueless. Way cooler, I think.
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