Shoot the Moon

Faith and George have been married fifteen years, have four daughters and live in a farmhouse in California. George is a successful writer; he is seeing another woman and moves out. The film tells the divorce not as an event but as a decay spread over months: the returns, the children taking sides, new relationships that fail to end the old one, and the eldest daughter's fury at her father. Alan Parker directed from a screenplay by Bo Goldman. Diane Keaton plays Faith and Albert Finney plays George. What it is best remembered for is how real the fights are. Parker shot the arguments in long takes without cutting, and the two actors built a rhythm in which the lines overlap and nobody wins. The other thing is the children's point of view. The daughters are not decoration on adult drama; the camera stays with them often and the actual damage of the divorce shows there. Who it is for: viewers who like American relationship drama of the late seventies and early eighties, and two strong performances. Who it is not for: anyone wanting resolution. The film vindicates neither side and leaves its last scene deliberately unfinished.