The Man in the Moon (1991)

From the 'movies my sister wanted me to see while I'm stuck here recovering file' comes The Man in the Moon, a drama set in the rural Louisiana of the 1950's and featuring Sam Waterston and a young Reese Witherspoon. The movie is produced by Mark Rydell but directed by Robert Mulligan, the talented director of To Kill a Mockingbird among others, but here it seems like Mulligan's trying to make a Mark Rydell movie. The pacing, the lighting, the music, the emphasis on the land, all classic Rydell, though the period setting is arguably more consistent with Mulligan. A coming of age story centred around a 14 year old girl I did not anticipate liking this movie (no hook), and the slow Rydellian pacing means there's not a lot that jumps out at you. However the acting, writing, direction, and cinematography are all good if not always exceptional, and there's a twist late in the film that I did not see coming, and which deviated enough from expected form to make this movie worth considering. A somewhat surprised recommendation.