Released: December 8th, 2009 (Original filmed in 2005)
Starring: Amy Adams, Alec Newman, Moon Bloodgood, Harriet Samson Harris
Writer/Director: Jonathan Abrahams/Giancarlo Tallarico
Description: A piano player discovers that the lovely girl at the coat-check of a jazz club has the voice of an angel, and persuades her to form a musical act with him.
[Review may contain spoilers. Please watch movie before reading, unless you don't care. Most of these film have already been released for a while, so they should be readily available.]
***
Where to start. This movie is terrible. And that is not a hyperbole. Everything from production, writing, directing, and acting -- minus Amy Adams, of course. She is the reason I selected this film in the first place, and I'm glad that she wasn't awful. Sure, she didn't deserve any awards for this, except maybe for carrying her fellow cast-mates.
A direct-to-video film, and boy does it shows it, Moonlight Serenade appears to be written by a high school girl who really loved musicals. It tries so hard to use the songs to drive the narrative, but it fails so bad. On top of that, the financial wizards plot really makes no sense. Actually, I shouldn't say that, it would make sense if they would have fleshed it out more. Rather everything was so generic. Protagonist Nate Holden (Newman) is an evil stock short-seller, then he falls in love with singer Chloe (Adams), then he decides to change gears and try to make other people money, he then gets fired, and in the end, finds happiness playing in a jazz bar.
Seriously, that's it. The plot was so easy to follow, and probably one of the many reasons this didn't get a theatrical release. I actually put a load of laundry in while the movie was playing, and I didn't miss an important moment. There was a lot of "paycheck acting" in this movie, too. Everyone seemed happy to collect their money and move on. The biggest culprit was Joey DeFrancesco, who was responsible for the movie's "music", as Frank D., the local jazz bar's piano player.
The only positive thing that came out of this movie is that Adams probably used her singing parts, which were actually quite good, to land her breakout role in Enchanted. I actually felt bad for her while watching this movie, but all actors go through it, and I bet its not the last time I see a great actress in an underwhelming feature.
Rating: 3/10 -- It actual made me hate jazz music for a while. It felt like a practice movie.
A direct-to-video film, and boy does it shows it, Moonlight Serenade appears to be written by a high school girl who really loved musicals. It tries so hard to use the songs to drive the narrative, but it fails so bad. On top of that, the financial wizards plot really makes no sense. Actually, I shouldn't say that, it would make sense if they would have fleshed it out more. Rather everything was so generic. Protagonist Nate Holden (Newman) is an evil stock short-seller, then he falls in love with singer Chloe (Adams), then he decides to change gears and try to make other people money, he then gets fired, and in the end, finds happiness playing in a jazz bar.
Seriously, that's it. The plot was so easy to follow, and probably one of the many reasons this didn't get a theatrical release. I actually put a load of laundry in while the movie was playing, and I didn't miss an important moment. There was a lot of "paycheck acting" in this movie, too. Everyone seemed happy to collect their money and move on. The biggest culprit was Joey DeFrancesco, who was responsible for the movie's "music", as Frank D., the local jazz bar's piano player.
The only positive thing that came out of this movie is that Adams probably used her singing parts, which were actually quite good, to land her breakout role in Enchanted. I actually felt bad for her while watching this movie, but all actors go through it, and I bet its not the last time I see a great actress in an underwhelming feature.
Rating: 3/10 -- It actual made me hate jazz music for a while. It felt like a practice movie.
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