Probably the greatest accomplishment of Brad Silberling’s Moonlight Mile is that the movie’s central characters are able to create an almost cozy air of reassurance without it feeling fabricated or assumed. Each member of this terrific ensemble creates a character that could easily fall apart if not for the other actors and the result feels as natural, in all its believability and foolishness, as the excuses for love itself: because they’re family.
Moonlight is the story of the survivors of Diana Floss, who was shot at a diner by the angry husband of a waitress–who the man failed to kill, simply put in a coma. The movie opens on the morning of Diana’s funeral and focuses on Diana’s parents, JoJo and Ben (Susan Sarandon and Dustin Hoffman), her fiancZ Joe Nast (Jake Gyllenhall) and a local girl, Bertie Knox (Ellen Pompeo), with whom Joe gets involved while staying in town temporarily with the Flosses.
Sarandon’s JoJo is probably the most reassuring of the three. Joe is either telling someone directly or with his face and body language that he is totally confused and doesn’t know what he’s doing with his life. This is mostly the fault of Ben who, only days after the funeral, paints ‘and son’ on the sign in front of his real estate office and drags Joe to a business convention. Joe was supposed to join the business after he married Diana, but Ben doesn’t seem to see the difference. Against Ben and Joe struggling to find purchase, Sarandon creates the strong, reassuring force–burning self-help books her friends gave her at the funeral reception and defusing anything daunting about Ben by constantly telling him to lower his shoulders, which he does sheepishly yet immediately–that seems to ward off any true threats.
Bertie is waiting for Cal, her boyfriend who has been MIA in Vietnam for three years, and is unable to fully embrace Joe. Diana’s trial hinges on testimony from the waitress in the coma and it becomes clear this is not the first time JoJo and Ben have preferred to suspend their problems rather than face them.
When it comes down to it, the suspension of justice gives the family some time for introspection. After her fight with Ben, JoJo tells Joe that home is never predictable or perfect but it’s always there, and the notion of interdependency seems to be what saves these people. At that point, Joe is the most confused and finds solace with Bertie and JoJo, but he gives it back when he becomes a stronghold for Ben, Bertie and even JoJo. One of the most frightening scenes in the movie is when JoJo starts drinking and smoking again. To watch the truly motherly character that Sarandon has constructed so well begin to unravel is unnerving, to say the least.
Ben has a few scenes where he laughs so unexpectedly you think he is going to break in half, but he always holds off tears. He seems to have fashioned a life of distraction, constantly leaping to the phone like one of Pavlov’s dogs. When he finally breaks down, it is only his loved ones, who have kept him from becoming hollow, that stave off total collapse.
However, it is only fitting that Joe becomes the strong one. And by the time the trial rolls around, Joe is able to show Ben, JoJo and even himself that the verdict doesn’t really matter. He is able to help Bertie in much the same way.
