IT is difficult not to be swept away by Moonstruck (Pearl, 9.30pm). It's a charming picture featuring a performance by part-time pop singer Cher that rightly won her an Oscar as Best Actress. Norman Jewison directed, John Patrick Shanley provided a faultless script and the supporting cast - some big names among them - does everything right. The film itself, a romantic comedy full of Italians, was nominated for an Oscar, but didn't win.
Cher plays Loretta Castorini, a 38-year-old widow who works as a bookkeeper and lives in Brooklyn with her very Italian-American family: her father Cosmo (Vincent Gardenia), a prosperous plumber; her mother Rose (Olympia Dukakis) and her grandfather (Feodor Chaliapin). When her longtime boyfriend Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) proposes to her, she accepts, although she is not truly, madly nor deeply in love with him.
Which is where things start to go wrong. Before the wedding Johnny must travel to his mother's deathbed in Sicily. While he is away Loretta meets Johnny's younger brother (Nicolas Cage in fine form), a hot-headed youngster in a white vest whom Johnny has not spoken to in 10 years. They are, of course, instantly attracted to each other.
The cultural setting is the key to Moonstruck. If you do not have much time for Italian-Americans it will not appeal to you one jot. The setting gives it content and context - Jewison, his actors, and the script (which includes some good jokes) do the rest.
THOSE 50s classic War Of The Worlds and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers inspired Remote Control (World, 9.30pm). It is not as good as either, but does have strangeness going for it. It's also, at times, truly scary. Kevin Bacon is Cosmo, a movie buff who works in the local video store and comes to realise that people who borrow a certain film - Remote Control - are dying.
The entertaining thing about this film is that it takes a dig (though not a very subtle one) at today's generation of video addicts. It was written and directed by Jeff Lieberman, whose Squirm and Blue Sunshine became cult classics of the low-budget horror genre.