100
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
The Man in the Moon is a wonderful movie, but it is more than that, it is a victory of tone and mood. It is like a poem.
A Moon in the Ordinary (平場の月)
User Rating
- Japan
- 2025
- · 119m
Director
Nobuhiro Doi
Cast
Masato Sakai,
Haruka Igawa,
Manato Sakamoto,
Maria Isshoku,
Yuri Nakamura,
Denden,
Michiko Kichise,
Nao Omori,
Tamae Ando,
Oniyakko Tsubaki
Kensho Aoto reunites with Yoko Sudo, whom he had feelings for in junior high school, for the first time in 35 years. On the second floor window sill of a small apartment. Yoko was leaning against the window and looking up at the moon in the night sky, then Kensho was watching her from outside. Kensho “What were you thinking back then?” Yoko “...Something like a dream. Just about something like a dream.” The two of them are naturally attracted to each other for the first time at the age of 50. They eventually start talking about the future...
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What are critics saying?
88
Chicago Tribune by Dave Kehr
A film of fragile and esoteric pleasures, The Man in the Moon is not a movie that can be recommended to the general public and should probably even be protected from it. But for those who can respond to its tiny formal beauties, it is something to treasure. [04 Oct 1991, p.C]
80
Los Angeles Times by Michael Wilmington
The Man in the Moon, a gently scary ballad of a movie, is about how love can open your eyes and then blind them with tears. Perhaps that sounds overly sentimental. But this deeply moving film, directed by Robert Mulligan and produced by Mark Rydell, from a script by first-time scenarist Jenny Wingfield, never strays into bathos.
80
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
Until its final reel, when it strains badly to accommodate an almost biblical stroke of retribution, The Man in the Moon is a small, fond film that achieves a kind of quiet perfection.
80
Village Voice by Nick Pinkerton
In lesser hands, it would be young-adult fiction, but the coda-“Maybe life’s not supposed to make sense”-is anything but kid stuff.
80
Variety by Staff (Not Credited)
The performances are all on the money, but two are outstanding. Newcomer Witherspoon manages to strike exactly the right note as the tomboy on the verge of womanhood while Waterston works on several levels at once.
75
Seattle Post-Intelligencer by William Arnold
The film has a gorgeous, Grant Wood-ish visual style - it was photographed by Freddie Francis and designed by the late, great multi-Oscar winner Gene Callahan (to whom the film is dedicated) - and there are a smattering of effective scenes and ingratiating performances to go with it. [04 Oct 1991]
75
San Francisco Chronicle by John Stanley
This film is not the classic that Mockingbird has become, but it is still superior, sensitive storytelling. [04 Oct 1991, p.D5]
75
Portland Oregonian by Ted Mahar
Dani's feelings are complex, as she reacts to life's new everyday bewilderments, and much of her reaction is wordless. Witherspoon and Mulligan make Dani's feelings eloquent. [16 Nov 1991, p.C10]
75
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)
A superb, timeless film which can and should become part of the treasured trove of minimalist art films that live on in memory and experience.
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