Moonlight Mile

Finding warmth, humor, and uneasy comfort in the face of senseless tragedy, Moonlight Mile is a poignant movie about pain and loss that doesn't succumb to melodrama and cry-you-a-river, give-me-an-Oscar performances. Revolving around the apprehensive bond that forms between a young man (Jake Gyllenhaal) and the parents of his fiancée, who is murdered just a few weeks before their wedding, the film opens on the morning of the funeral with Gyllenhaal sleeping in his late bride-to-be's childhood bedroom. Although he has plans to leave that night, he ends up living with the girl's downhearted, acquiescent parents (Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon), who assume he'll join the family business as planned. But when he's unexpectedly attracted to a cute, tenacious local (wildly charismatic newcomer Ellen Pompeo), it causes a quandary of love and loyalty. Much funnier and far less contrived than it sounds, Moonlight Mile is an uncommonly sincere, bittersweet movie, peppered with unexpected moments of authentically impulsive humor, that effectively chronicles one quasi-family's emotional recovery. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include audio commentaries by director Brad Silberling, and by Silberling and costars Dustin Hoffman and Jake Gyllenhaal; a 22-minute “A Journey to Screen” featurette; and 10 deleted scenes with optional director commentary. Bottom line: a solid extras film for an affecting film.] (R. Blackwelder)