Written and directed by Brad Siberling, who based the movie on his own experiences, Moonlight Mile is built around an interesting premise. Unfortunately it's one which fails to maximise that potential, due to its readiness to fall into the trappings of gushing sentimentality and easy-to-digest emotional responses. In other words, it might be based on a real event but Moonlight Mile doesn't reflect real life.
In one of the least effective performances of his impressive career, the talented Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe Nast, the fiance of a murdered girl who is grieving with his beau's mother (Sarandon) and father (Hoffman). Unable to break free of the broken-hearted parents, Joe finds himself being adopted emotionally by the couple, seeing him as a final link to their murdered child. So far, so good. Yet from there, Siberling insists on introducing a vaguely ridiculous plot featuring a terribly attractive postal worker and part time bar worker whose presence is never really justified other than to offer a handy resolution to several plot strands which weren't going anywhere fast. Siberling is unwilling or unable to undertake a hefty examination of the grieving process comparable to the likes of the infinitely superior The Son's Room (2001) or In the Bedroom (2001). On the plus side, Moonlight Mile is a slick looking film, with the period detail - early 1970s, small town America - neatly attended to. However, the director paints his characters and their dilemmas in strokes that are far too broad to be effective, and the actors can offer no real sense of definition to their roles.
