A Walk on the Moon [DVD]

It was very late Saturday night, I happened to be home alone and very tired, and I wasn't at all sure that I would want to see this movie enough to remain awake past the opening few minutes. Funny, though, I don't quite know from exactly where I got my second wind (AND IN SPITE OF MYSELF). I've been on both sides of the main guy parts of this movie at different points in my life, and I've got to tell you that THIS FLICK HITS HOME!!! Even the atmosphere of the wife on vacation in the mountains with the kids, while the husband has to get back to the city to work-- leaving the wife just lonely and complaining enough to feel vulnerable-- was a reality I experienced in real life, and re-experienced just as realistically while watching this movie.The negative reviews threw me off completely--as a movie lover, as a man with a reasonably rich sexual history to look back on, and as a clinician helping others through their own times of crisis (or LACK OF CRISIS when they should be feeling themselves in one). In both real-life "perpetrator" and "victim" roles, I was discovering the broader reaches of joy. I also remember undergoing the encounter with the other man, or with the man when I was the other man. I remember how hard I struggled for that same sort of respectfulness with which the characters in this movie tried desperately to reach out to each other, and how hard it was to live up to it while I was in such pain . . . or having caused such pain.From having been on both sides I learned:(1) that the "other man" is never victorious over the man, because the "other man" usually represents only the exclusive freedom of indulged fantasy for the woman; and(2) that the "victim" has to come to the decision to compete with the other man for his woman's affections as a lover, not as a punitive moralistic whiner.The lover in this movie seems to have known the first part from the git-go; the husband, on the other hand, took a while (and some memory-jogging help from a microscope his wife sent him) to warm up to that second point. Taming jealousy (the green eyed monster) turns out to be more a matter of taming one's own, as well as everybody else's, INSECURITY.Even when it didn't hurt, both sides of the experience were nevertheless scary to go through--and under both circumstances, it was ridden with guilt and uncertainty about where ultimately this would all be going. I just saw the film for the first time on Netflix, and I have promptly bought six copies for me and to share. While over half the marriages end in divorce, Americans remain a determinedly marrying and RE-marrying people, leaving a great many of us to make our way in blended family situations.These days, couples are bombarded with the hollow promises of fantasy entertainment garnered from cheap TV melodramas, which invariably leave them hard up to distinguish reality from common yearning. Just saw on WebMD advice delivered by a supposed sexuality expert about marriage--5 ways to keep sensuality strong--and it seemed like she was cooking Hamburger Helper (in the end, offering more explanations for why we shouldn't expect mutual climax than how to reach it with each other).There is a vast mystery in love, which this movie seems to capture (without ever trying to bring it all down to some sort of stupid easy solution by the time the credits start rolling). In actual point of fact, there are as many different types of love as the Eskimos have words for snow, but we nevertheless think about it as only a unidimensional topic: and that's also how we tend to talk about it, or (worst of all) do it. It is ultimately more art than science, and one can only be taught to take the time to explore and connect with one's own inner vision for how to go about it. That is the gift we offer to the other party in any genuinely honest embrace, and thus the conversation is on (hopefully in responsively negotiated back and forth fashion).I loved the movie's keen sense of proportions: the wife achieved intense frolicking with her lover, but we leave the husband and wife back together having barely achieved clumsily dancing the twist with one another--which is exactly how new beginning proceed (when we first meet our other, or when we become REacquainted with him or her). And all this was done so tastefully in the movie, which provides role models which are sure to keep couples caught in similar dilemmas from having to seek feeling excitedly XXX "dirty" in order to get it on.Hard to believe, but cynical old Hollywood SOMETIMES DOES GET IT RIGHT!!! Cheap-shots-from-left-field/low-ball criticisms will only set the moguls back on their heels, and back to offering us Pabulum and Silly-Putty versions of life. When a cultural objet-d'art like this comes along, give it it's due, or shut up and get out of the way. If we fail to exercise the discipline and generosity to do this, remember that audiences invariably get the crap they deserve. I highly recommend this film, for its near-documentary verite as well as for its most gratifying savoir faire.

Item came promptly which I appreciate!

Brought back a lot of memories.

It’s not Oscar worthy but let’s be honest a lot of movies now a days aren’t. It a good movie to watch on a hung around the couch or rainy

This DVD arrived in excellent condition.

My husband and I own this movie and think it's fabulous on every level. We've watched it many times since it was first released. Diane Lane and Liev Schrieber are both marvelous actors and are able to convey so much about their emotions with small moments. Tovah Feldshuh, as the wise mother-in-law, is perfect. The changing times are believably portrayed in this story about a couple who married young in a different time and now find their world changing. (I was 18 at the time of the moon landing and Woodstock so witnessed the era firsthand.) One of the things that is so good about this movie is that all the characters are good, well-intentioned people - there is no "bad" guy here, even the gorgeous "blouse man," played by Viggo Mortensen, is a decent guy. I love it that both Pearl and Marty, after they realize some new things about each other, are willing to try and find their way back to each other in this new world. The final scene of them dancing on the porch couldn't be better.Despite the fact that three years after this movie, Diane Lane was in "Unfaithful," they are very different movies and "A Walk on the Moon" is superior because it has so much heart. I can very strongly recommend this movie.

This is definitely one of my favorite movies. It has everything... Humor, romance, great performances, great music... Part of me wished that Pearl could have gone off with the blouse man, but that would have ruined the most important part of her life: her family. Sometimes, things don't work out the way we want them to and our lives are set for us early. Sigh. My only criticism, and it's a small one... Whoever wrote the script must have been a real city person. Uh-hummm, --- wasps do not have stingers. Bees have stingers. Wasps take a little bite out of you and leave their venom. You can swell up to about the size of a quarter with a wound that looks like a pink hill with a red dot in the center of it, not a huge red and black boo-boo like is shown in the movie. Yes, Adolph's meat tenderizer will help, so will Champo-phenique or a paste made of ice water and baking soda or a warm oatmeal bath. And, in the first shot of Daniel throwing stones at the wasp nest there is no nest there. Oh, well...

Wish it was Blu-Ray, but DVD is good enough! A great film from script to screen.The package came wrapped in plastic as i new, as it should be.