A Walk On The Moon

Set in New York's Catskills during the summer of 1969, A Walk on the Moon finds Jewish housewife Pearl Kantrowitz (Diane Lane) longing for more excitement just as her teenage daughter Alison (Anna Paquin) begins coming-of-age on her own. As Pearl drifts into an affair with an itinerant dress salesman (Viggo Mortensen), screenwriter Pamela Gray makes the interesting choice not to celebrate Pearl's infidelity as the action of a woman "finding herself," opting instead to focus on the idea of accepting one's difficult choices. Rookie director Tony Goldwyn, meanwhile, does a nice job of creating his Catskills milieu as a distinctly conservative time and place in the middle of the counterculture. In fact, A Walk on the Moon only stumbles because the sub-plots involving Alison's rebellions and flirtations end up feeling token, the victim of a script that should have made a firmer choice between focusing entirely on Pearl or splitting the focus evenly between the two women. When the film does stick with Pearl's story, it's a nicely grown-up tale about growing up. A strong optional purpose. (S. Renshaw)