The film follows the character of Chiron, a young African-American gay man living in Miami. The story begins with him in his childhood, and progresses through adolescence all the way through to adulthood. The story itself is an interesting one about identity and self-discovery, and there are moments of beauty within in it, but overall this films fell flat. Although it moves through a lot of the life of young Chriron, nothing truly happens, and at times it is quite dull.
Now don't get me wrong there are parts that could be described as brilliant, such as the performance by Naomie Harris. Her portrayal of Chiron's mother Paula was excellent, and full of emotion. The character is a drug addict, and her actions further Chiron's worries and alienate him. Harris received her very first Oscar nomination, in the Best Supporting Actress category and I think that if it was any other year recently she probably would have won it, unfortunately Harris was up against the great actress Viola Davis who put in a stunning performance in the film 'Fences'.
Continuing to focus on the positives of this film I cannot fail to mention the actor who did win an Oscar for his role in 'Moonlight'. Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor for his part as Juan, a Cuban born drug dealer who now lives in Miami and comes across Chiron during his childhood years. Ali managed to portray the two sides of this character effectively. Juan is a drug dealer meaning he has a hard exterior, but when he meets Chiron his attitude changes, he in a sense becomes a surrogate father to the child and helps him come to terms with who he is as a person.
With these two stellar performances you would expect that the film overall would be breathtaking but unfortunately this was not the case. As mentioned before there are moments that are great but the overall development of the story left me feeling unfulfilled by the end. I think the main problem with this was the lack of character development, in a slow moving drama like this one you need to get attached to the characters themselves not just the good performances. I believe that come the finale you are not truly invested in Chiron's character and therefore you do not have any strong feelings to how his story ends in this film. I understand the message the the movie is trying to portray, that identity can take time to discover, but I did not feel this hit the audience hard enough throughout.
I was very underwhelmed by this movie, and if I were voting I would have given 'La La Land' the Best Picture win instead of 'Moonlight' (see my review of 'La La Land' here). I am not telling you to avoid this movie, in fact if you like slow dramas then you should watch it and see if you agree.
I am going to rate this move a 2 out of 10, and the performance from Harris and Ali is the only reason it doesn't get lower.
