Philadelphia Weekly

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Moon Beams

Director Jill Godmilow mixes fact and fiction in a whimsical film about two literary and lesbian icons.

By Leo Charney

Add Comment | Comments: 0 | Posted Apr. 19, 2006

It's worth seeing just for the amazing performance of Polish star Ryszarda Hanin as the old woman. Looking like a cross between patrician Jessica Tandy and wary Agnes Moorehead, the veteran actress, in her last movie before her death, cycles through a lifetime of moods and memories. Harsh and bitter in one context, she's girlishly flirtatious on a train ride and then blissfully wistful in the forest, dancing alone in a childhood reverie.

The story's ending remains ambiguous-a little frustrating, yet fitting for a movie focused on life's unpredictability. "Mother of God! What a person can come to!" moans the old woman at one point. In this powerfully concentrated vision, the Holocaust, the divide between rich and poor, and arbitrary acts of fate all add up to the same message: Life is unfair. A

You'll Like It If You Like: Holocaust dramas.

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