Joe Versus The Volcano

A silly fable about love as the end product of seizing the moment and getting out of your comfort zone, it's a scenario as superficial as Shanley's Moonstruck was substantial.

It would be easy for Joe to embrace arch insincerity, to be a fulminating rant in fairytale clothing. Instead, it asserts that it's OK to be afraid, that emotional strength isn't always easy and that you can find what you thought forever lost.

It speaks to the commercial and critical success of Shanley's 1987 hit 'Moonstruck' that he was handed, by a major studio, the resources to make a movie as unapologetically weird as this one.

Playwright John Patrick Shanley made his movie directing debut with this defiantly strange, totally under-appreciated, yet completely wonderful romantic comedy.

Like Woody Allen's filmmaking evolution played out in reverse: it starts as smart, existential black comedy and ends in broad, zany caricature.