Moonlight Mile


• Tagline: In life and love, expect the unexpected.
• Director: Brad Silberling
• Writer: Brad Silberling
• Release Date: 4 October 2002 (USA)
• MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for some sensuality and brief strong language.
• Parents Guide: View content advisory for parents
• Genre: Drama | Romance
• Runtime: 91 min
• Box Office #’s: Here

A young man lingers in the family home of his fiancee, after her accidental death. While grieving along with her parents and drawn into legal issues presented by a district attorney seeking justice for the family, he finds himself falling in love with another woman, against his own best intentions.

From the Gallery

Cast Highlights

• Dustin Hoffman … Ben Floss
• Susan Sarandon … Jojo Floss
• Ellen Pompeo … Bertie Knox

Trivia

  • Neighbor’s Restaurant is really Haley’s Liquor Store in Marblehead, Massachusetts.
  • Loosely inspired by writer/director Brad Silberling’s own experience. He was dating actress Rebecca Schaeffer at the time she was killed by an obsessed fan in 1989.
  • Writer/director Brad Silberling wrote the characters of Ben and JoJo Floss with Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon in mind.
  • Keanu Reeves was considered to play the part of Joe Nast.
  • A screening of the film was held at Salem State College’s auditorium in Salem, Massachusetts which is adjacent to Marblehead where the film took place.
  • The original title of the film was “Baby’s in Black” named after The Beatles’ song. But the producers found it too expensive to obtain the rights to use the song. So the film was renamed “Moonlight Mile” after a lesser-known tune by The Rolling Stones.
  • When Jake Gyllenhaal and Dustin Hoffman are sitting on the park bench talking, the scene is actually two locations. When you see them from the front, that is in Marblehead, Massachusetts. When you see them from behind, you’re seeing Gloucester, Massachusetts (where Perfect Storm was filmed). You can see evidence of the two locations in the bench they are sitting on – the numbers and thickness of the slates change at the different points of view.

Quotes

[Bertie and Joe start slow dancing to the Rolling Stones’ “Moonlight Mile”]

Joe Nast: What did I do?
Bertie: You played my song.

June Mulcahey: [referring to Diana’s death] He didn’t tell me that you were
[pause]
June Mulcahey: still tied up in all that?
Joe Nast: Really?
June Mulcahey: No.
Joe Nast: Well, you know, it was kind of a deal, the whole thing. The clean-up alone took days. You’d be amazed at what a mess a high-caliber weapon can make, an in a restaurant, all those little pieces of – all of – well anyway, let’s just say it was pretty time-consuming. Then you got the whole burial to deal with. This whole coffin business – much more complicated than people think. Standard sizes? Dream on! Had to custom-fit the whole deal. Had a tailor come out, do her size right then and there. Do you know how hard it is to have a tailor come out to do house calls? And on a school night? I mean
[laughs]
Joe Nast: this is pulling teeth, you know what I’m saying? And then, you know, of course you got the house to deal with, and that’s a whole other ordeal, you know? Cause who wants her stuff around, right? I mean, that’s a valuable room, why waste it? So, you slog through that and, yeah, next thing you know a couple of weeks have gone by and your thinking to yourself “man oh man, am I still tied up with all this? Where did the time go?”

Joe Nast: I’m sorry, I can’t, I can’t do this. It didn’t happen. We loved each other, we broke it off. If I don’t-Jesus, if I don’t say this now, it’ll never-she’ll never be a part of this. What are we-what are we doing here? I don’t even-I don’t even know this guy. She-she didn’t even know this guy. What’s he got to do with her? I don’t-look, you asked me to bring her in the room, and she’s not here-she’s not. And whatever happens here, whatever happens to this guy, she’s not here. And the only way that you’re gonna bring her in here is with the truth. I don’t know-I don’t know what else to say. You just tell me what to say, and I swear, I’ll try, but if you want her, you got to keep it honest. You have to understand that Diana had this thing, this way of bringing out the real in people, not just the best, you know-their honesty. And I guess she’s doing it again now cause there’s no way I’d be sitting here saying these things I can’t believe are coming out of my mouth. It was Diana who finally had the courage. *She* was the one who told *me* that I didn’t want to go through with it. And I guess she’s-she’s doing it again, cause all of this-all of this is everything that she wouldn’t want. She wasn’t a bride-to-be. She wasn’t a victim. She was strong and real and messed up and wickedly honest, just like her mother. And if I sit here trying to paint it any other way, I… Oh, I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I just-I thought-I thought that if I could just… paint the pictures that you needed, you know, that… that somehow… that somehow you’d bring these people some peace, finally, and they’d have their daughter back, or… But, uh… that’s not how she’d wanna be. The truth is hard. Sometimes it looks so wrong, you know-the color’s off, the style’s wrong, but I guess it-I guess it’s where the good one’s live.

Joe Nast: [at the post office] I think you have some mail here.
Bertie: You think?

Joe Nast: [sneaking out through the bedroom window, whispers to himself] What are you, 16?

Mike Mulcahey: Joe, what kind of man do you take me for?… Prisoner of History?…
Joe Nast: [caught off guard] Not on appearance…?
Mike Mulcahey: Mired in – in convention or…
Joe Nast: Uh… I’m… guessing “no”?
Mike Mulcahey: Joe, we are brothers. I’m younger than you are. I’m a man of your time. What do we brother’s lack…?
Joe Nast: So – uh, so many things…?
Mike Mulcahey: One thing!… one
[pause]
Mike Mulcahey: time!

Bertie: You think if you just run around fast enough, figure out what everyone wants, no one’s gonna notice what a coward you are? Are you that scared? – You sleep in that house, eat their food… you act like everyday’s just another Sunday
[pause]
Bertie: you think if you just keep it up, these people won’t notice their daughter’s missing?
Joe Nast: What are we doing that’s so different? – Lend a hand, Bertie! There’s not a body in that bar that thinks Cal McGinnis is ever coming home!
[pause]
Joe Nast: You think I don’t know that you’re never gonna make room in your life for someone who want’s to know you better than 60 lousy percent?
[pause]
Joe Nast: It’s the last 40 that counts!
Bertie: [whisper’s] Where’d you go, Joe?
[walks out, slamming door behind her]
Joe Nast: [whisper’s to himself] I’m… right here.

Joe Nast: She was strong and real and messed up and wickedly honest… just like her mother.

Joe Nast: The truth is hard. Sometimes it looks so wrong, y’know. The color’s off, the style’s wrong, but I guess… I guess it’s where the good ones live.

Jo Jo Floss: You never smoked did you, Joe?
Joe Nast: No.
Jo Jo Floss: Diana said you had sweet breath – the very first thing she told me… Atleast the girl had her priorities straight
[pause]
Jo Jo Floss: Joe, what do you think your gonna do… without our girl?
Joe Nast: Jo-Jo, I have no idea.
Jo Jo Floss: Promise you’ll let me know when you do.
[pause]
Jo Jo Floss: of course, I’d like you to remain celibate for the rest of your life, but it’s negotiable…

Bertie: So, did you ever see that “Lucy” episode where she’s in this big vat stomping grapes, making wine?… I feel like that everytime I cimb in. I pretend I’m in Italy
[Bertie and Joe get into the mail bin]
Bertie: … feeling Italian?
Joe Nast: Uh – no, not just yet.
Bertie: Give it a sec.

Bertie: So, did you come back for that drink?
Joe Nast: [chuckles] No, the dancing, actually.

Joe Nast: I lost my friend.

Joe Nast: [voiceover] Dear Bertie, You asked me before where I went. And I want to tell you. I went to a place where nothing’s right, where every moment’s backwards, every sky’s without colour, without hope. I tried to come back, Bertie. But I got lost. And while I was gone, I met you. And I didn’t even have the courage to realize I was home. A wise friend of mine told me “we all have our homes”, and now I know it’s true. I hope you get this letter, Bertie. I figure I got 75 chances. Cause if you do you’ll know that in the end, that’s where I was. I found home, Bertie. I found you. I hope you can find your’s soon. Get there – as fast as you can. And write me when you do. Love, Joe.

Joe Nast: That song at the bar, that was your’s?
Bertie: He never actually heard it… but
Joe Nast: …But he knew you pretty well?
Bertie: About 60%

Joe Nast: [speaking to Bertie as she cries with her face turned away from him] Please let me see you. I want to see you.
[Bertie turns to Joe and they kiss]

June Mulcahey: Must keep you very busy. You must value your free time.
Joe Nast: Free time?
June Mulcahey: You know- going out, recreation.
Joe Nast: I – uh, not of late, no.
June Mulcahey: No?
Joe Nast: Yeah. Lately I’ve been a little, preoccupied.
June Mulcahey: [smiling] Oh, I see. Other interests.
Joe Nast: My fiance’s death.

Jo Jo Floss: [at her type-writer] I’m doing an accounting, the real her, the Diana facts.
[reading from a piece of paper]
Jo Jo Floss: “Number 92- laughed like a pig. Full-throated, nasal snorts”. Huh? I mean, this is the stuff! Fuck the perfume, give me the warts!
[pause]
Jo Jo Floss: You.
Joe Nast: [chuckles] Ew. Those really ratty sandals she always loved to wear. They always made this incredible farting sound everytime she moved.

Bertie: So, commercial real-estate?
Joe Nast: Commercial real-estate.
Bertie: What the hell does that mean?
Joe Nast: [laughing] I have no idea.
Bertie: And this is what you want to do?
Joe Nast: Not really.
Bertie: Oh, and what do you want to do?
Joe Nast: I want to figure out what I want to do.
Bertie: So you’re kind of in “Escrow” at the moment?… real-estate term.
Joe Nast: Yeah, I recognized that one
[chuckles]