Moonlight (2002)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

A Brilliant Conflict

Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A typical European pretentious "message movie", except I've no clue what the message could be? Here's a list of possible messages: 1. If you find a foreign boy who is wounded and running away from drug-smugglers, it's best to call the police, or at least tell your parents about it.2. If you shoot a boy, make sure you check he's dead, because a rich adopted girl living in ther woods could find him, nurse him, have sex with him, and then... NOT call the police.3. If you want to have pedophiles watch your movies, get your 13 year-old actress to take all her clothes off and have sex with a 13 year-old boy.4. 13 year-old Afghan boys who are mortally wounded in the stomach are perfectly capable of having sex - for the first time - just hours before they die, with their new-found Dutch girlfriends.The movie has barely any dialogue, as is typical of so many European, especially Scandinavian dramas (yeah, I know, Holland is not in Scandinavia, but it's close enough). However, the movie is sufficiently strange as to be watchable, in spite of its absurd premises.Naturally, the movie ends tragically. Anyone surprised?How many pedophilic internet forums discuss/worship this movie? I wonder...

POSSIBLE SPOILERS: I gave this movie 5 stars because it's equal parts good and bad. This is a road trip movie about first love between two teenagers from different worlds.. except one doesn't speak English. In fact, he doesn't seem to do much of anything except get shot, look confused, and then look angry. I found it difficult to feel much for him. It was a shame he was forced into such a terrible situation, but no real attempt was made to develop him beyond that. Fortunately, more is revealed about the girl's personality. The girl's parents are a little odd and don't seem to mind having a black leather jacket clad gangster wander around their property at night. Half the gangsters looking for the kids in this movie disappear as it goes on and we only learn the fate of a couple of them with the main gangster only bookending the film and completely disappearing in the middle. But there wasn't a lot to their characters anyway (though it would've been nice to at least know what became of them or see them get their comeuppance). The drug use by the boy and girl didn't bother me (it didn't look like they were enjoying themselves very much there at the end) but the nudity did surprise me. And the tragic scene immediately after the sex made me laugh aloud. I couldn't help it, it seemed too conveniently dramatic to be taken seriously. I did like the menstruation theme that ran through the whole film and thought it was cleverly used at times and I thought the very end was interesting. Overall, if there had been more dialogue and more happenings on the road trip I would've liked it better.

If there was a message the director of "Moonlight" was trying to put across, I missed it. However, one thing is certain, I got my fill of two kids' bathroom habits (or lack thereof.) We are not told why a young 13-year old girl, who is obviously loved by her parents and well-taken care of, decides to secretly harbor a young boy who has been shot once in the leg and once in the abdomen. Why she doesn't tell her parents remains a mystery. Of course, how she determined the boy's wounds were a result of being shot is even a more perplexing mystery. He doesn't speak English (or any other language in which she is apparently fluent.) This film begins with a very absorbing plot, but unfortunately the birds ate all its breadcrumbs, and inevitably along with its viewers, the film becomes fatally lost.

This is just about as bad as it gets folks. If this is 'European art' then the words 'Emperor's clothes' springs to mind. The only skill the director and producer have is to lead you along so that just as you think it can't get much worse, it does. The number of flaws in the plot is countless and I won't list them all here. The baddies drift around in their car; we are led to think they are following the two main actors, in which case why don't they just pounce. The final image of the girl, rotating as it does back and forth, summed it up for me: No one knew where this movie was going and no one knew how to finish it off. Uggh. I hope this was not made with European taxpayers money, but I have a horrible feeling it was.