Full Moon in Blue Water ** (1988, Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, Burgess Meredith) – Classic Movie Review 9468

Director Peter Masterson’s shaky 1988 romantic comedy drama Full Moon in Blue Water is a stagey, wordy character drama with Gene Hackman appearing unhappy and ill at ease as Floyd, a beleaguered hero whose wife has drowned and whose bar at Galveston Bay, Texas, is threatened by insolvency through tax debts.

Also largely wasted are Teri Garr as amorous spinster bus driver Louise and Burgess Meredith as Hackman’s senile father-in-law, The General, and Kevin Cooney as Floyd’s false friend Charlie, who is trying to force him to sell the bar cheaply.

Full Moon in Blue Water is a sometimes interesting, though too often boring, depressing film, but Hackman is still worth a look and so is Elias Koteas as his simple-minded employee, Jimmy.

The original screenplay is by American playwright Bill Bozzone.

It is Peter Masterson’s second film as director, following the 1985  The Trip to Bountiful.

Also in the cast are David Doty, Gil Glasgow, Marietta Marich, Alexandra Masterson [Lexie Masterson], William Larsen and Becky Ann Baker [Becky Gelke].

Peter Masterson, In the Heat of the Night and Exorcist actor, director of the movie The Trip to Bountiful and co-writer of the stage musical The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, died at 84 on 18 December 2018 . He and his daughter, Mary Stuart Masterson, starred in the 1975 The Stepford Wives as Walter Eberhart and his eight-year-old daughter. He also co-wrote the screenplay of the 1982 film adaptation of The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas that starred Burt Reynolds.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9468

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