Timothy Hutton and Meg Ryan in Serious Moonlight

Details

Serious Moonlight
Directed by Cheryl Hines
Magnolia Pictures
Opens December 4

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More About

• Adrienne Shelly
• Timothy Hutton
• Meg Ryan
• Arts, Entertainment, and Media
• Movie Stars

Timothy Hutton is duct-taped to the potty, and Meg Ryan is just plain potty in this posthumously produced Adrienne Shelly script directed by first-timer Cheryl Hines (who starred in Shelly's Waitress). Born of the grief-fueled determination of Shelly's husband, Andy Ostroy, to carry on the legacy of his late wife, who had completed several screenplays by the time of her death in 2006, Serious Moonlight has a backstory much more intriguingly dramatic than what's onscreen. When alpha attorney Louise (Ryan) discovers that Ian (Hutton), her husband of 13 years, is about to leave her for 24-year-old receptionist Sara (Kristen Bell), she trusses him up on the toilet of their country house, holding him hostage until he falls in love with her again. Ryan flails and Hutton screams through the powder-room tears and recriminations, performing as if they're doing dinner theater underwritten by Dr. Phil. The tonally weird black comedy throws in some Funny Games—and creepily echoes the circumstances surrounding Shelly's murder by a construction worker who broke into her office to rob her—when Justin Long's local gardener shows up to burglarize the house, roughing up Ian and feeling up Louise.