Moonstruck

Moonstruck: Is Love Really Worth Waiting For?

By Breyana Rolon

Quirky duo Cher and Nicholas Cage

Moonstruck, directed by Norman Jewison, was brought to audiences in 1987 - a great decade for romantic comedies showcasing strong and powerful women such as the women seen in this one. Bringing to it a wonderful quirkiness stars Cher (Loretta) and Nicholas Cage (Ronny) show us that love does, in fact, sweep us right off our feet in the most surprising ways. As all movies the pair are in, they are able to bring something much different to the screen, and I couldn't have been more excited to see the two of them together in a way that I found delightful and unexpected.

I found myself surprised by the portrayal of women in the film as I was expecting a more conservative look at women's roles and marriage, but I ended up getting a film that was definitely a precursor to the feminist movement of the 1990s. Loretta is a working woman of 37 who has been married once already and has no children. The less feminist parts of the film are based more on culture and religion rather than the men in the film being more blatantly misogynistic. As a Catholic, Italian, widowed and only daughter, her living at home with her wealthy parents rather than on her own is more than justified. She makes her own money, was raised by a strong stay-at-home mother (Rose) who takes zero shit (including from her cheating husband), and is works alongside her aunt and uncle, who show her that a man and woman can be equal in every way just as they are.

The film does provide us with some interesting conversation starters, sometimes giving us the conservative view of those surrounding Loretta, but doing so in a way that is so subtle it's almost unnoticeable. As she does live at home, Loretta's whereabouts are often questioned when she is not home, with there being a bit of confusion when her location is unknown. We also are introduced to a gentleman who gets drinks thrown at him on more than one occasion by the young female students he chases around and unintentionally insults. The first time this happened was in the opening scene right before Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to Loretta where he laughs and jokes: "A man who can't control his woman. It's funny." This was said so quickly I almost missed it and had to rewind just to make sure I heard him right.

I was quite unsure about the movie up until about 20 minutes in where Loretta sat down with her mother to tell her she was getting married.
Rose: "Do you love him, Loretta?"
Loretta: "No."
Rose: "Good. When you love them they drive you crazy because they know they can."

The whole reason behind Loretta choosing to marry Johnny Cammareri is that she waited for the love of her life, married him, and then he died. She talks about her bad luck throughout the entirety of the film: "I was raised that a girl gets married young. I held out for love." She's come to the conclusion that if everything is done "right", everything will turn out right in the end. We all know that's as false a fact as any and Johnny's brother Ronny proves that to her with their sweeping affair. They did everything wrong but ended up both getting their happily ever after.