This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Sadly Over-hyped

Good concept, poorly executed.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

This film disappoints in every aspect. The acting is middling (even the almost always wonderful Amy Adams and sadly-underused Harriet Sansom Harris), the script is ridden with clichés, the production values are amateurish, and the plot is terribly predictable. It is a credit to Ms. Adams that her screen presence alone kept me watching until the end even though she is rarely given anything to do in this film (besides exhibiting a fine singing voice) that would merit such dedication. Without her, I probably would not have made it past the first 20 minutes. The only positive thing going for this movie is the fine selection of American standards sung throughout which could easily be otherwise obtained from other artists and various other sources.It is easy to see why the studio sat on this film for more than 4 years before finally releasing as direct-to-DVD once Amy Adams had become a rising star.

This seems to have gone straight to video and I'm surprised it got made at all in this day and age. The writer director has nothing else on his CV and according to the DVD this was made seven years ago albeit only released in 2009. The idea of several standards in one film appealed strongly to me but I was disappointed by the weird phrasing which occurred at least once in every number with both principals being at fault. They also have trouble getting through an entire number and one of the most truncated is the very first, Irving Berlin's 'They Say That Falling In Love Is Wonderful', one of the ballads from 'Annie Get Your Gun'. The male lead sings the first stanza (the song is in A,A,B,A) skips the second 'A' section and the Release and segues straight into the last 'A' section. Maybe it was a budget problem but given that he was in his own apartment and it was just voice and piano and especially given that the lyric points up what is to follow - he is going to meet and fall for Amy Adams - you'd think they would have stretched to thirty-two bars. 'You Go To My Head' is also truncated; this is performed as a duet and they miss the first 'A' section completely and begin with the second. Amy Adams does get to sing 'In The Wee Small Hours Of The Morning' all through but veers badly from the melody. On the plus side we get a great soundtrack, performers who are clean, well- dressed and free from tattoos or body piercings; there are no drugs, no swearing, no sex; on the minus side the great songs are thrown away.

A movie scored by Joey DeFrancesco was a great promise with Cole Porter standards to boot. Unfortunately, Joey turned out to be the best actor in the movie and he is the musician. Poor Amy Adams a jazz singer she is not. She was pitchy and her phrasing was karaoke at best. I can't even address the lead actor... he was simply too painful to watch. Joey and his band are joy to listen to and I felt his lovely score was sorely wasted on this outing. Very strange cinematography, odd and obtrusive lighting, scrappy editing and a script in search of a story. If you took the DeFrancesco digital masters and resell them to a real movie that would be okay with me. Amy Adams who is an otherwise talented actress needs to buy up all the DVD's she can get her hands on and have them shredded. Moonlight Serenade does her career no favors.

Having endured this film last night, I turned off the DVD player with a sense of deserving a medal for having the stamina to see it through to the end. Throughout the film I felt that I was watching the storyline fillers that you get in a high budget porn movie. the acting was stiff and taut, camera work appalling, and the locations and sets were so poor it felt like they had borrowed them from the local High School "Amateur Dramatic's Society".The only saving grace for this movie was that it had Amy Adams and Harriet Sansom Harris in its credits, other than that it was pure dribble.