User reviews

I really enjoyed this movie. I think the soundtrack is amazing and appropriate although "Helplessly Hoping" is a cover of the CSNY classic. Still, we have Jefferson Airplane, Jesse Colin Young, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, and Richie Havens to drop a few names. Listen to the lyrics in this movie...apply them to how Pearl, Diane Lane's character is feeling... Diane Lane does a wonderful job of portraying a 60's housewife who, like so many other women of the time, found herself in a life she fell into. She meets a man who reminds her of who she wanted to be...of feelings she forgot she had. Movies aren't obligated to be lessons on morality, rather they are slices of the lives we all lead or dream of leading or hope to never lead. Some of the scenes in this movie are so powerful-they really rattle the soul. The love scene at the waterfall is wonderfully scored with the amazing "Cactus Tree" by Joni Mitchell. One can feel Pearl's guilt and confusion coupled with an excitement and verve for life she truly deserves. We see Pearl come of age metaphorically as she searches her heart to find out who she truly is. I recommend checking this one out and watching with an open heart and an open mind...the music alone is worth it.

A WALK ON THE MOON as written by Pamela Gray ("Music of the Heart") and directed by actor Tony Goldman conjures up more atmosphere for the year 1969 than any film to date. Remember Woodstock, the Jewish summer retreats in the Catskills, hippies, face and body painting, threats from the Vietnam era and promises of space habitation by the famous first walk on the moon? It is all faithfully created here as the background for a lovely little sentimental tale about family and fidelity.

The Kantrowitz family - Pearl (Diane Lane), Marty (Liev Schreiber), Alison (Anna Paquin), Daniel (Bobby Boriello) and Marty's mother Lilian (Tovah Feldshuh) - are spending their usual summer away form New York in a Catskill settlement bungalow along with other Jewish families of the same ilk. All seems swell, except that Marty must spend the weekdays returning to his job as a TV repairman, leaving the family under Pearl's and Lilian's care until his weekend visits. A hippie blouse salesman Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen) peddles his wares to the settlement and casually but inevitably Pearl feels an attraction to Walker, the man of adventure who represents all the lost dreams of becoming a mother and wife at the too early age of 17. Life has slipped her by but feels salvageable in Walker's advances.

Woodstock is close by and Pearl and Walker spend a day of hippie love-in in the crowd, not knowing that teenage Alison is also there observing their free love antics. This crisis event affects the family's unity and the way Pearl faces her moment of indiscretion with Marty and her children builds to a terrific climax.

Diane Lane, Viggo Mortenson, Liev Schreiber and Tovah Feldshuh completely inhabit these simple characters and pull us into accepting all aspects of the predicament of this family crisis. The confrontation among Lane, Schreiber and Mortenson is a trio of acting not to be forgotten. Tony Goldwyn has paced his film beautifully and proves that he has as great skill as a director as well as an actor. The cinematography by Anthony B. Richmond is as recreative of a special time on our history as has been captured. This little film will stay with you long after the credits are over. Grady Harp

I like movies with a good character-centered plot and this certainly qualifies. So many Hollywood movies have a distinctly evil antagonist and a pure protagonist. There is no "bad guy" in this movie. All of the people have a side that I could relate to, but they make mistakes along the way.

In all a very good film

What one would do if their wife screws up with a salesman? I couldn't get the intention of director to portray walker as gentleman. I mean, Cmon... He made out with a married woman and didn't say a word to her that it's wrong. Poor Marty and kids have to suffer the fantasies of disgusting young lady. She should NEVER NEVER be forgiven. How can one commit such heinous act and get away with it? Divorce must have been the perfect ending.

When a family spends the summer of '69 in the Catskills, both mother and daughter find new love interests. Diane Lane stars as a wife and mother who turns to the "blouse man" for affection when her husband can't get out of the city and spend any time with his family. Anna Paquin plays her teenage daughter who comes into her own during this time and needs her mother's emotional stability, which isn't there.

The first thing I ask myself is the reality behind this film. Could this really happen? Yes. Could I believe something like this could happen in Lane's character? Not with her mother-in-law living in the bungalow, as well. It's a nice film based on a time when things were a little simpler, but I don't think the director gave very much opportunity for any of the stars to "give it their all," especially co-star Viggo Mortensen. Bottom line: good plot, great actors, bad fit.

7 out of 10 stars.

"A Walk on the Moon" has a teen in it, but it's definitely a grown-up movie.

It helps to remember 1969 though one does wince at some of the inaccuracies as too much cultural symbolism is thrown into that summer. Hey, where's the rain at Woodstock? - it was only nice weather on the Friday. Some of the music was inaccurate - what were the odds of turning on the radio in 1969 and hearing "Sally Go Round the Roses" from 1962? Why would someone from NYC claim they couldn't afford college and not consider what's now CUNY?

This is Liev Schreiber's first grown-up movie I think; he was quite good in Shakespeare in the Park last summer. Some reviewers bashed the movie because Schreiber is so good (especially as he discovers the power of Dylan and Jimi Hendrix) that one sympathizes with both the adulterer and the cuckold - gee but ain't life complicated, as what comes across is the importance of family.

Too bad the Blouse Man (very appealing Viggo Mortensen) is just basically a hippie and he's not a real person, but everyone else is. Anna Paquin as a teen discovering that her parents are people too was wonderful. Diane Lane's NY accent does waver quite a bit.

I lost my objectivity whenever Tovah Feldshuh spoke. As the grandmother she sounded so much like my grandma, who of course was alive in 1969, that I practically cried every time she was on the screen, though mine had a thicker Yiddish accent.

All in all, a very touching movie.

(Originally written 4/11/1999)

A Walk on the Moon was Tony Goldwyn's directorial debut,

and all I can say is MORE! This is an excellently constructed film. The script was written by Pamela Gray is

fantastic. If you like a film with characters who could easily be real in believable situations that you come to care about, then you will love this film. Set in upstate New York in the summer of '69 the movie focuses on the choices and the resulting consequences made by a young woman who feels trapped in her role as wife and mother. That setting with the Vietnam War, social unrest, Woodstock, and the manned moon landing is arguably one of the most interesting times of the 20th Century and woven seamlessly into the film. The soundtrack with songs from the era fits perfectly and is great. The casting and performances were flawless. After seeing the film, I can't imagine anyone else in the roles. This was the first time I had seen Liev Schreiber who plays Marty, the husband, and Viggo Mortensen, the carefree lover. Both were terrific. Tovah Feldshuh, the perceptive earthy mother-in-law, and Anna Paquin, the rebellious daughter, were perfectly cast as well. And Diana Lane as Pearl, the lead, plays her multifaceted role well. I believe this film to be worthy of Academy consideration. The category that comes to mind (and there are others) is best supporting actor for Liev Schreiber. This film is a must see for the baby boom generation. Four stars!!!!

I was impressed by the fact that this movie was set in the late 1960's yet doesn't overwhelm you with this fact. The story tells itself well against an elegantly-done period background. I was continually amused by the constant interruptions by the loudspeaker ("The knish man is now on the premises!,") in a hilarious vocal cameo by Julie Kavner. As good as the story was, I found some of the plot devices a little too convenient...there were HOW many people at Woodstock, and the daughter just happens to 'pop in' and see her mother there? Overall, though, this was an enjoyable movie that didn't use brute force to tell its tale, but relied instead on a solidly-constructed script.

So his wife cheats and he forgives and starts over again!!! Wow,talk about brainwashing men by showing them trash movies!!! He should have kicked her out, obviously. And the girl's response should have also been very different too,she should have told her father. Talk about brainwashing children by showing them trash movies!!!

Okay, so I'm surfing the 63 movie channels on my new digital cable......and I hear a voice... It's the loudspeaker of the Catskills bungalows project announcing some esoteric occurrence... You simply had to be there...And I WAS... Forget the glamour of that upscale Catskills resort on "Dirty Dancing"... This was REAL LIFE circa the 1960s...as I, and I'm sure many others remember it from our childhood... (I won't go much into the plot here...that's been covered...it's the FEELING of the movie--the LIFE--that hit me...) Now, I am certain this whole atmosphere will seem bizarre, fairly off kilter to most...But as a Jewish kid born in NYC in 1953, this movie was SO REAL, it was incredible... I swear I was there...no, not in the movie...but in one of those bungalow colonies somewhere in the Catskills in the Summer of '69...close enough to Woodstock to breathe it... And I have never seen a film completely capture the setting as well as this one... Trust me, folks, this is a snapshot in REAL TIME...The characters are right out of my family, my friends...the "resort" is what real life was like for most "working class" NYC families who could squeeze out just enough cash to escape the sweltering NYC summer... There was a point in the "mountains" where my Zayde used to announce "This is as far as the car goes"...He never in his life drove farther from the Bronx than those bungalows... I've watched the movie through twice now and it's just as real every time.

It's the summer of 1969. The Kantrowitz Jewish family is vacationing in a holiday camp not far from Woodstock. The father Marty (Liev Schreiber) has to go back to repair TVs in time for the broadcast of the moon landing. Mother Pearl (Diane Lane) feels stymied by a static life. Daughter Alison (Anna Paquin) is a rebellious teen making a new friend with Myra Naidell (Lisa Jakub). Walker Jerome (Viggo Mortensen) is a traveling salesman selling clothes. Pearl falls for the mysterious salesman and starts an affair. Marty's mother (Tovah Feldshuh) notices.

Diane Lane is a slightly better cheating wife in 'Unfaithful'. This one doesn't quite have the style. It's first time directing for actor Tony Goldwyn. He doesn't really have the eye for it. The story is too ambitious for him. The actors are all doing a good job. There are some great actors here. It's just missing a real vision from the leader in the director's chair. This is more of an actors movie and a romance novel. Also a movie with Woodstock should have more music in it. The sense of place isn't fully achieved. I would have preferred to move away from Woodstock and not have the grand expectations. The smaller family drama is so much more superior anyways.

Any movie that portrays the hard-working responsible husband as the person who has to change because of bored, cheating wife is an obvious result of 8 years of the Clinton era.

It's little wonder that this movie was written by a woman.

The sixties were a time of great transition. At their beginning was the Peace Corps: a way to help those in need of a better life. At their end it was the me generation: how high can I get or how can I satiate my senses to the fullest. This movie is one of the best "encapsulations" of those events that I've seen.

The moral overtones of the movie are overwhelming. Wrongs occur. Do we run away from them? Do we trash our lives because of them? This movie attempts to address these questions. It does it well.

Finally, what brings it all together? In two words: Diane Lane. She possesses a deep but quiet beauty that makes it work. Her character asks, "I'm approaching middle age. I have children and a good but somewhat boring husband. Is this all there is?"

All ask this question as youth begins to fade. The answer this movie purports makes it exceptional and even classic. A hundred years from our descendants will look at this movie and appreciate its incite in human existence.

The term "women's picture" is often used to derogatorily describe melodramas about adultery in which the principal protagonist is the wife. Today 'chick-flicks' have become the new women's pictures in which the heroine rather than the hero is to the fore and rather than commit adultery is doing all she can to establish her relationships.

Of course, women's pictures were finally made respectable by the great Douglas Sirk who used the genre to explore the mores of a specific time and place in American culture, and the best women's pictures, such as Michael Curtiz' "Mildred Pierce" are as much about class, status and politics with a small p as they are about relationships. Though not quite in the Douglas Sirk class Tony Goldwyn's "A Walk on the Moon" is a very superior example of the genre, dealing as it does with issues in a wider social and historical context than a mere perfunctory summer romance.

For a start, the film is set in the past (1969, to be exact; the title referring to Niel Armstrong's moon walk and is set, literally, just down the road from Woodstock). And it's pleasures are very much in the detail, not just in the summing up of the seismic changes happening in American society at the time but in the smaller day-to-day things that affect the nuclear family at the centre.

Here it benefits considerably from a quartet of superb performances from Diane Lane and Liev Schreiber as the couple whose marriage (in haste and with regrets on both sides) could so easily end on the rocks, from Anna Paquin as their daughter in the throes of growing up and from Tovah Feldshuh as the Jewish mother-in-law with a gift for observation bordering on second sight. Tony Goldwyn handles the interchanges between these people beautifully so that when the wife finally abandons common-sense as well as her clothes for some steamy business with 'the blouse man' underneath a convenient waterfall, the film transcends cliche and becomes both genuinely erotic and moving.

This chick movie that put the Woodstock Generation on a bad light and just because of that, I hated it. Hey, if the woman in the movie got a seven-year itch, then so be it, but not on the backdrop of Woodstock. Woodstock is spontaneous, and dynamic, it lives in the heart and the mind of the generation of which I am bound. What about the 1969 Republican Convention, that is a good backdrop for this movie.

OK, I will admit that my initial interest in this movie stemmed from a "Viggo-is-God" mentality. He was so great in LOTR, I wanted to see him in other movies. I don't think it's fair to label Diane Lane's character as a slut. You have to be from another century to think that a person is bad because of a single moral indiscretion.

It was pretty obvious to me that she was lonely and depressed because her husband ditched her in this lame Catskills resort for weeks on end, with nothing but the kids and old ladies for entertainment. Oh, and The Blouse Man (Mortensen's character). I mean, who would you pick to hang out with? The love scenes are gloriously shot, but that's all I'll say because this site has a strict spoiler rule. All fans of Mortensen and Lane (and romance) will enjoy this film.

A touching look at life, human weaknesses, missed dreams, and opportunities.

Having read all of the posted reviews, what I find most interesting is the overall male consensus that the film portrays the husband as the guilty party for his wife's dissatisfaction. Being male, I find it hard to believe that so many of my gender feel so weak and betrayed.

Pearl, doesn't blame her husband and only learns to value and understand him better as also having missed out on some of life's potential. Also, I find it hard to accept the moralizing in the reviews. The film is not condoning the illicit relationship, the idyllic couplings and temporary `escape', are photographed as what we dream we've missed. Are acted out fantasies, to be moralized? Pearl knows, the fantasy can't last and a price will be paid.

Haven't we all missed out from time to time? How many men have fantasized (and acted out) Pearl's actions and expected to be forgiven. Why because they're men??? A well acted, beautifully filmed, and nicely scored remembrance, of the period of self exploration and human frailty.

This is the kind of movie I like very much: it shows a very particular experience in a way that draws in the viewer. The main character is a 30 something Jewish housewife from New York who takes her children on their annual summer stay at a lodge in the Adirondacks. Both she and her daughter are changed by their romantic experiences and their exposure to hippies and Woodstock (I remember leaning out of the car window to stare at hitchhiking hippies in the late 1960's, as the children do in the movie.) Obviously, this family's experiences are different from many people's, but the emotions are real, and the people very likeable.

This is a well-crafted, enjoyable film -- well-acted, well-written, well-directed. In terms of substance, however, it's just a cut or two above your average TV movie of the week. Characters are interesting, and there are crises a-plenty, but with 10 minutes or so to go in the film, everything is neatly wrapped up in a bow and placed at our feet, just so. No muss, no fuss. The film's great saving grace, however, is sharp performances throughout from Liev Schreiber, Diane Lane, Tovah Feldshuh, Viggo Mortenson, and Anna Pacquin.

The universal theme of coming to terms with the loss of youth and accepting a life of unfulfilled hopes and dreams is explored in `A Walk On the Moon,' directed by Tony Goldwyn. Diane Lane stars as Pearl Kantrowitz, a thirty-one year old mother of two, the oldest of whom, Alison (Anna Paquin), is fourteen; her husband, Marty (Liev Schreiber), is a square shooter who loves his wife and family and provides for them by working long hours in a shop repairing television sets. It's the summer of ‘69, and while on the family's extended vacation-- during which Marty must return to work for the week-- Pearl falls into discontent, and with Woodstock about to happen a mere stone's throw from the campground/resort at which they are staying, she soon succumbs to the siren's song of the ‘60s: The inhibition, freedom and free love-- all of which have been denied her since giving birth to her daughter at age seventeen. There's an honesty to Goldwyn's film, and though he captures the sense of the times in which the story is set fairly well, he nevertheless fails to elicit much sympathy for his leading lady, Lane. Perhaps it's because, though there is much about Pearl with which to identify, her story is just too familiar; her situation is far from being unique, and she has a decent, upper middle-class life, with a loving husband and two great kids. The fact that she started young and that her dreams were never realized is a shame, but it's not like she's the only one to whom such a fate has befallen. And her futile attempt at regaining her lost years comes across as somewhat shallow and decidedly unsympathetic; and without that sympathy the film sputters and finally stalls, even as Neil Armstrong is beginning his historic walk on the Moon. There's no question that Lane is attractive, and physically she fits the role of Pearl perfectly. But she simply doesn't possess the wherewithal to sell her character in this film. The emotional turmoil of what Pearl is experiencing seems restricted to the surface, and she never manages that depth of feeling that would've made the necessary connection with the audience. It's not that Lane is bad in this role, it's just that she's not that good. There are just too many gaps in credibility and too many false moments to be overlooked. It's as if the character throughout remained just beyond her grasp. Liev Schreiber, on the other hand, is outstanding as Marty. You have no trouble believing he is exactly who and what he is supposed to be. This is a character to whom most people will be able to relate, and if only Lane had been able to evoke the same kind or response as Schreiber, it would've made a tremendous difference in the overall aspect of the film. Anna Paquin gives a noteworthy performance as well, successfully capturing the angst of puberty while coping with an ever-changing world. The supporting cast includes Viggo Mortensen as Walker Jerome, the traveling salesman with whom Pearl attempts to reconcile her lost youth; Tovah Feldshuh (Lilian Kantrowitz); Bobby Boriello (Daniel); Stewart Bick (Neil); Jess Platt (Herb); Star Jasper (Rhoda) and Julie Kavner (Voice of the Social Director). There are some poignant moments in Goldwyn's film, and it does generate a certain sense of loss and longing; but overall, `A Walk On the Moon' is at best a momentary diversion that comes across like a finger painting on an impressionist's canvas. That is stays afloat at all is due mainly to Schreiber and Paquin's performances. Other than that, this is-- unfortunately-- a rather forgettable film that never quite attains the level of drama to which it aspires. I rate this one 5/10.