Dancing at the Harvest Moon (2002)

I am totally in the right age segment for this kind of movie. 40+ and very happy to be convinced that a woman can still be appealing to a 25 year old man. This story could have been great! It had all the right ingredients: Young handsome, fit and energetic man ditches pretty same age girlfriend for a forty something divorcée. But this movie messes the story up completely for one simple reason, Jaqueline Bisset. How on earth are we to believe that John would fall for her? She is supposed to have been in love with his dad at the age of 18, which is twenty something years ago and would therefore be in her forties. But she looks so old! At old older than 45 and more like the 60 odd years, she actually is. Not only does she not look the part, she has apparently lost all ability to act. I dare say the producer could have easily saved her salary and instead have had an extra walk around with a cardboard cut out playing a metallic tape recorder robot voice - and done a better job. She is so stiff and passionless, that I cannot for the love of anything see how anyone would feel the quandary of whether it is love or just sexual attraction. When they kiss, it looks like a kid kissing a grandmother without an ounce of tension or passion. Well she could be his grandmother, so that is probably why. I had to look away during some of the romantic scenes - it was that awkward and inappropriate.I am so sad they did not make more of this, getting a great mature actress to play the part. It had all the elements to become a favorite, but it failed badly.Do not watch this, even if you get it for free. It is horrible.

Beautifully executed script. My only complaint was that Jackie Bissett's accent was not explained and, as in the case of another watcher, I agreed 100% that whereas Eric Mabius was perfect in his role and totally comfortable in his/John's character being in love with an older woman, even to the end of the film, Jackie B. (who had plenty of experience in this situation as in "Rich and Famous") did not seem comfortable in return. This, beyond the fact that her character had been fleetingly in love with John's father over 25 years before. This was a beautiful story and I will seek out the book by Kinnon. Embarrassed to say that since I am in the same place now that Maggie was in the film, I teared through the entire film. Eric Mabius' powerful and perfect performance is in part responsible for my high grade. He was able to continue his character's persona created by another actor as his father giving the same passionate human flavor that a son would have who was very like his father. Beautiful!

Unimpressive, dull and sometimes pretensious TV movie about a middle aged woman (Bisset) who discovered that his old time husband (Mancuso) is betraying her with a young secretary; after the discovery, the poor wife goes back to the city where she lives when she was a teenager justo to reopen an old and decayed ballroom. This movie could be a good chance to discuss with more sharpness the anguish, troubles and fantasies of a feminine soul - especially after a marriage breakup - but unfortunately misses the point and is just a routine and unconvincing love story, narrated like a classic and old-fashioned soap opera. I give this a 4 (four).

I was so excited when I saw that the book "Dancing at the Harvest Moon" was being made for tv. When I first read the book I immediately loved it. Unfortunately, I was extremely disappointed with the tv version. The people who made it just couldn't capture the greatness of the book. If you even remotely liked the tv movie...Read the book it's a million times better.