Amritraj and his Moonlight Mile Three Oscar winners come together for a thought-provoking film

Arthur J Pais

Young Joe Nast's life doesn't seem shattered when his fiancee is killed a few days before their wedding.

He makes it a duty to remain with her parents and grieve with them, even as he harbours a terrible secret. He goes about with the business plans of his murdered fiancee's father. Unexpectedly, another woman enters his life and he is consumed by uncertainties and divided loyalties.

"Take a young man caught in unusual circumstances and throw in another woman who could be his real soulmate," says writer and director Brad Silberling of his movie, Moonlight Mile. "Suddenly, he is skulking around in the shadows. But love happens when it happens."

Moonlight Mile, executive-produced by Ashok Amritraj, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival early this month. Audiences loved its intensity and its comedy, most of it coming from Dustin Hoffman and Susan Sarandon who play the parents of the young girl. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Joe Nast.

"Comedy in the midst of tragedy is a natural dynamic," says Silberling whose own personal tragedy inspired the film. 'What should be a somber situation ends up being unexpectedly funny because people are unpredictable.'

The film's "emotional roots lie in a defining moment earlier in my life when I experienced a loss much like Joe's. The family's behaviour --- which may look like an unusual mode of grieving --- is very real. I experienced it. Sometimes life is your best cowriter."

Recent Features White feather for      Shekhar Kapur? Who is Karisma Kapoor? Dino Morea on Gunaah On the sets of Stumble JP Dutta on LoC On the sets of Baaz Toronto to LA Hrithik in Ramu's next? Bipasha-Karisma war! MORE FEATURES...

Sarandon says the script awed her.

"The most important thing for me is that I don’t want to play anybody that I have already played before," she explains. "I had never seen anybody deal with grief the way that JoJo (her character in the movie) does."

Hoffman says he loved working with Sarandon so much that he won’t mind doing all his films with her. "Susan is a very good mother," he says laughing, "and I am a good mother, too!"

Sarandon, who has a relationship with actor Tim Robbins for over a decade and which is apparently more successful than most Hollywood marriages, says of herself and Hoffman: "Both of us were extremely happy with our families. I drew on that and I am sure he did too."

Silberling, whose City Of Angels grossed about $120 million worldwide, had to wait many years to raise money for Moonlight Mile. Three Academy Award winners, Sarandon, Hoffman and Holly Hunter (who plays an attorney), came on board. Many producers thought the film was a risky project.

Amritraj was one of the first men in Hollywood to evince strong interest in the project.

"I would always love to be involved in films that are very dear to a star or a director but are finding it difficult to attract many other producers," says Ashok Amritraj, whose company Hyde Park Entertainment has collaborated with Touchstone Pictures in making Moonlight Mile. "I know that artistes and directors then pour their heart into the movie."

Also Read:
Hoffman gets cozy with Sarandon