moonlight mile

MOONLIGHT MILE

Brad Silberling is a film maker known in our country for their outstanding work in commercial films "Casper," "Lemony Snicket´s A series of unfortunates events" and "City of Angels". But beyond his work as a studio director, he has made its first steps in art house films, leaving a little gem called "Moonlight mile".

Watching the film, you may think that there are discrete traps in the script, which are a necessary sacrifice for the truth of a story in which the characters are on the edge of their feelings. However, the characters are so well drawn by the writer and director (and performed beautifully by the cast), that you perceive and understand each situation very well. Investigating, I discovered that this story is a posthumous tribute to the last Silberling's girlfriend, the actress Rebecca Schaeffer, who was murdered by an obsessed fan.

The film's title comes from a Rolling Stones’ song with the same name, and Silberling uses the song in a key sequence, full of poetry with an American style. Jake Gyllenhaal (before the boom of Brokeback Mountain he wasn’t as well known as nowadays), plays the starring role of a boy who is living at a crossroads: after the loss of his fiancée he has to choose between to be faithful to himself or to the ones around him. Susan Sarandon (as immense as ever), Dustin Hoffman and Ellen Pompeo complete the main cast, with a collaboration reserved for Holly Hunter, sadly wasted in some films on the big screen. The starring of "Grey's Anatomy" seemed to promise us a great future in the big screen when she played her role in this film. She played the girl who falls in love with Gyllenhaal in the fiction, a young woman whose life is empty since her boyfriend disappeared in the war of Vietnam. 

The beginning of the film shows us the biggest tragedy, which is losing the loved one, and explores the indelible pain which make us formulate the questions ‘What next?’ or ‘When are we going to recover?’. Silberling answers to these questions with his film, giving us an encouraging vision of the subject. Perhaps the most attractive of this film is a very simple and thoughtful film, based on taking a loss, and finding the reasons and courage to move forward. It is reflected in each sequence in the house of Sarandon and Hoffman and in the conversations with Gyllenhaal, and although it is one of the sequences with more cynicism, I personally think that is manifested in the outbreak of Joe (Gyllenhall) in the podium. The sad thing is that there is no such outbursts of sincerity so often in the real life.

The film is an intimate commitment, unpretentious, but at the same time it is clean, comes far as it goes, and leaves the viewer an important job, which may or may not see how much you have to offer depending solely on their willingness to do so.

Furthermore, the film is a musical gem, starting with the score by Mark Isham, who has stood out with "House of my life," and signing an impeccable soundtrack. Every song sounds throughout the footage, and is so careful and very well chosen that you wonder if the songs are part of the autobiographical soundtrack of Silberling or part of the day and time that the characters living in New England in the 60s. There are treasures like "Coming back to me" by Jefferson Airplane, "Razor Face" by Elton John and two of the masterpieces of Van Morrison "I'll be your lover too" and "Sweet Thing",  which are perfect for the sequences in which they apeear.
Curiously, at the end of the credits the director makes a personal dedication "To all lovers, those who left and those to come." 
Anyway, this is a recommendation for you to see the film if you haven’t seen it yet. We hope you enjoy it.