Serious Moonlight
Metascore
36 out of 100

Generally unfavorable reviews - based on 16 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 16
  3. Negative: 5 out of 16
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Doris Toumarkine
    70
    Overall, "Moonlight" is a nuttily engaging tale of betrayal and, perhaps, redemption.
  2. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Betsy Sharkey
    70
    It's been a long time since Ryan has had a romantic comedy that gave her room to move and though the scale is smaller here, the humor blacker and Ryan well beyond the first blush phase, you'll be glad that Serious Moonlight came along.
  3. St. Louis Post-Dispatch
    Reviewed by: Joe Williams
    63
    It's a pleasure to watch Ryan resurrect her trademark persona, a mix of perkiness and pique, as she flounces around the room. But it's shaded with a middle-age desperation that's half real and half chick-flick shtick.
  4. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    50
    More strident than funny, the film illustrates that old French proverb, "Marriage is like a cage; one sees the birds outside desperate to get in, and those inside desperate to get out."
  5. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    50
    There's a lot of yelling, cracking wise, and cooing in this creepy rom-com.
  6. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: M. E. Russell
    50
    I appreciate that talented people wanted to honor Shelly by making this film. They likely would have better honored her by mounting her script as a play.
  7. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    50
    What may have started out as a comedy devolves into quasi-Stephen King territory.
  8. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: David Fear
    40
    Has neither enough bite nor enough heart to sustain it as a female-revenge-fantasy-cum-romantic-comedy; even its “shocking” switcheroo and faux-edgy moments seem remarkably frivolous and flavorless.
  9. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marjorie Baumgarten
    40
    If you want to see a good comedy about a couple’s marital problems getting worked out through the course of a home invasion, check out "The Ref."
  10. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Melissa Anderson
    40
    Serious Moonlight has a backstory much more intriguingly dramatic than what's onscreen.
  11. Variety
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    40
    A less-than-frothy domestic showdown starring Meg Ryan and Timothy Hutton, it owes as much to Edward Albee as to Nora Ephron, with an occasional nod to "A Clockwork Orange."
  12. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Sam Adams
    33
    The bitter comedy Serious Moonlight is meant to be both funny and painful, but manages only the latter.
  13. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    30
    A very shallow comedy. For the real thing, rent “The Ref,” in which Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis, with a boost from Glynis Johns, set the house on fire.
  14. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    25
    A shrill farce that strains credibility even by the standards of black comedy.
  15. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    25
    Serious Moonlight is a tonal disaster, distasteful and sentimental by turns. It was probably a mistake to have Hines try to walk that same delicate line that took Shelly her entire career to master.
  16. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Joe Neumaier
    20
    It's also suffocatingly stagy, especially when the husband's new love (Kristen Bell) and a violent thief (Justin Long) show up.

User Reviews

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User Score
4.7 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 6 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. hoops2448
    6
    Serious Moonlight is not what I expected at all, in both a good and a bad way. The title itself is still a mystery to me but the rest of the film is a little bit simplistic. The story is one of Louise (Meg Ryan) and Ian (Timothy Hutton), an unhappily married couple who have sort of an odd weekend. It starts with Louise surprising Ian for the weekend at their summer house while he is writing a letter about how he is about to leave her. Ian plucks up the courage to tell her and she responds by knocking him out and tying him to a chair with ducktape. The story continues from there in a play like fashion with there being grand sweeping statements, outlandish actions that can only be pulled off on the stage. Ryan and Hutton are joined from time to time by Ian's mistress Sara (Kristen Bell) and a gardener named Todd (Justin Long) who manage to infuse some comedy into the incredibly depressing proceedings of the first half. In fact the best part of Moonlight is that it turns itself on its head halfway and becomes much more enjoyable with a much more agreeable tone. The tone of the first half is going for black comedy but the comedy is stale and the idea that yelling (which Hutton does for most of the first half) can be found funny is beyond me. The second half however is lively, clever (in places), fun and most of all, its funny. Ryan even manages to fit in some physical comedy despite the obvious restrictions in both the script and the setting. Overall its a film that needed a more skilled hand then a first time director (Cheryl Hines) and the script felt more like a draft than a finished product despite the fact it had some brilliantly funny moments towards the end. The acting is good, if not great at times with Ryan and Hutton having great chemistry and some nice comic timing (despite all the yelling.) its just a shame about the first half.… Full Review »
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