Takes itself way too seriously

Just perfect...

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

Henry (Sean Penn) and Nicky (Nicholas Cage) are best friends who attend high school together. It's 1942 and all of life seems like a prelude to their induction into the Marines. They share all the adventures of young men on the threshold of adulthood. But Nicky is irresponsible, never seeming to consider the consequences of his actions.Henry meets Caddie (Elizabeth McGovern), a classmate who lives in a nice house on a hill. In this coming of age story, Henry finds that he has adult feelings for Caddie. She helps teach him about life's consequences.I know some viewers are not fans of Sean Penn, Nicholas Cage or Elizabeth McGovern, so any one of them in a cast might discourage someone from viewing this film. Personally, I am a fan of Elizabeth McGovern. And I have seen excellent performances from the two men, even if I do not embrace the body of their work. In "Racing with the Moon", each of them is well suited for his part. I think most who appreciate period pieces like "Stand by Me" or "The Summer of 42" will enjoy this film.With direction by Richard Benjamin, RWTM really captures the feeling of the times, when America was so enveloped by patriotism and somewhat naïve about its place in the world. In just three more years, the worldview would change with the advent of nuclear weaponry. The music in the film really helps create the tone of the times. I enjoyed this film, particularly because of the relationship between the two young lovers.

Before Sean Penn and Nicolas Cage became big names, they starred in this coming-of-age movie, leading up to the enlistment of WWII. Elizabeth McGovern, from Ordinary People and this year's Downton Abbey, costars as a girl that Sean likes and thinks is rich, when in fact, she only lives in a fancy house, because her mother is a maid there. Nicolas Cage is a love-em-and-leave-em type, who uses girls for his pleasure and then tosses them away. One girl of his gets "in trouble" and needs money for an abortion. Nick and Sean try to get the money by playing pool and betting with marines. But when that doesn't turn out the way they planned, Sean asks Elizabeth for it, who in turn tries to steal and pawn something from the house. Nick really acts like a jerk to the girl and he and Sean have a falling out. But because of their deep friendship and the fact they're leaving soon, they're friends again. Besides the plot (which I've practically told,) the film's main assets are the star's acting and charm (including Ms. McGovern) which make it all very credible. We are allowed to see the youth and naivety of the period and their zest for life, and we see the characters, not wanting to grow up, trying to hold on to today, despite the inevitable war coming to disrupt their world. Racing with the Moon is an early Sean Penn highlight and one that should be discovered today.

Unlike most Hollywood movies that must be pigeonholed into categories--comedy, drama, romance--this movie dared to be all of these. And it dared to be low-key, without large, manufactured tragedies or plot hooks. Rather, it had the elegiac mood and idiosyncratic details of a fine short story, with its characters neither good nor bad but human, their lives honestly and touchingly observed by a sensitive screenwriter and director.

This one looked like it was filmed during the 40's right down to the overly waved up hair on some of the women. Fine acting by the 3 main characters go along with the props [especially the bowling pin machines] to give the viewer a sense of the war years. Not a real deep story, but well done and well worth seeing.