Shoot the Moon **** (1982, Albert Finney, Diane Keaton, Karen Allen) – Classic Movie Review 8467

Director Alan Parker’s 1982 drama Shoot the Moon stars Albert Finney, who is on powerhouse form as George Dunlap, a distinguished writer who, after 15 years of marriage, leaves his wife Faith (Diane Keaton) and four children for another woman, Sandy (Karen Allen), but is then upset when Faith (Keaton) falls for Frank Henderson (Peter Weller from RoboCop), the man who is installing a tennis court.

Bo Goldman’s script offers plenty of insights into the break-up of a marriage between a barrage of emotional moments. Shoot the Moon is powerful stuff, compellingly directed in California’s Marin County. And, of course, nobody falls asleep during an Alan Parker film.

Albert Finney and Diane Keaton received Golden Globe nominations for their performances.

Parker called it ‘the first grown-up film that I’d done’. He said it was a film about ‘two people who can’t live together but who also can’t let go of one another. A story of fading love, senseless rage, and the inevitable bewildering betrayal in the eyes of the children.’

Parker relished a wide range of film-making styles and working in different genres: ‘I think that by doing different work each time, it keeps you creatively fresher.’

Also in the cast are Dana Hill, Leora Dana, Viveka Davis, Tracey Gold, Tina Yothers, George Murdock, Irving Metzman, Kenneth Kimmins, Robert Costanzo, David Landsberg and Michael Alldredge.

Unsurprisingly, being grown-up film, it struggled at the box office, costing $12,000,000 and grossing $9,217,530 in the US.

Shoot the Moon is made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and SLM Production Group, and released by MGM.

Albert Finney was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2011 and died of a chest infection on 7 February 2019, aged 82. He was five times nominated for Academy Awards, Tom Jones (1963) in 1964, Murder on the Orient Express (1974) in 1975, The Dresser (1983) in 1984, Under the Volcano (1984) in 1985 and Erin Brockovich (2000) in 2001. He won BAFTA Awards in 1961 for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) [Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles] and 2003 for The Gathering Storm (2002) [BAFTA TV Award].

His final movie was the Bond thriller Skyfall (2012). Despite Finney’s lack of awards, John Cleese praised him as ‘the best’ and ‘our greatest actor’.

Sir Alan William Parker CBE (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020).

Alan Parker died on 31 July 2020, age 76, after a lengthy illness.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8467

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