Moment by Moment was a swing and huge whiff of a romantic-drama where the two leads shared absolutely no chemistry and many awkward scenes that made the movie pretty tough to sit through.
Moment by Moment
(1978)
Genre(s): Drama, Romance
Kino Lorber| R – 105 min. – $24.95 | August 24, 2021
Date Published: 08/10/2021 | Author: The Movieman
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Kino Lorber provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Blog Post.
The opinions I share are my own.
THE MOVIE — 2½/5 |
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Plot Synopsis: Trisha Rawlings (LILY TOMLIN), a lonely, middle-aged Beverly Hills socialite, meets Vick “Strip” Harrison (JOHN TRAVOLTA), a suave young drifter. Their initial flirtation turns into a passionate relationship despite their age and class differences.
Quick Hit Review: Moment by Moment is one of the more awkward romantic-dramas I’ve come across and featuring one of the more obnoxious characters. What’s even odder is despite featuring John Travolta following his hit Saturday Night Fever, this movie never got off the ground. Sure, Travolta can be charming but here he was absolutely annoying, to the point I haven’t a clue why Lily Tomlin would tolerate him, let alone is attracted to him. The biggest knock, as has been mentioned in many reviews from the day, is that Travolta and Tomlin had zero chemistry, making this a bit of a chore to watch; that is when I wasn’t in discomfort trying seeing these two engage in what was supposed to be a deeply emotional relationship.
The film was written and directed by Jane Wagner who was, and still is, the partner (and wife since 2013) with Tomlin. Guess it’s no surprise considering the box office and critical failure, Moment by Moment was Wagner’s first and only film as director and only has a few writing credits, including 1981’s The Incredible Shrinking Woman, starring Tomlin (and directed by the late Joel Schumacher). Moment by Moment might be a great movie to mock MST3K style with a group of friends as there are enough cringe scenes to laugh at. |
SPECIAL FEATURES – 2¾/5 |
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This release comes with a new Audio Commentary with Film Historians Lee Gambin and Maya Montanez Smukler, a couple Radio Spots (1:54) and the Theatrical Trailer (1:34). |
VIDEO – 4½/5 |
| Kino Lorber is the studio to release Moment by Moment onto the disc format of any kind (from what I can tell, at least in North America, this was only available on VHS). The movie is presented in its original 2.35 widescreen aspect ratio and given a 1080p high-definition transfer. There’s no mention of where the transfer came from, so presumably Universal provided the original negative. In any case, the picture does look great, detail is sharp especially on the close-ups and colors appear to be nicely balanced. The original film grain is still present and outside of some minor specs, does seem to be clean. |
AUDIO – 4¼/5 |
| The disc includes a standard DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track. Nothing phenomenal but more than adequate for a movie that is primarily dialogue or score driven. There is some minor depth with the sounds of the ocean waves filling some scenes or ambient noises within a crowd. |
OVERALL – 2¾/5 |
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Moment by Moment was a swing and huge whiff of a romantic-drama where the two leads shared absolutely no chemistry and many awkward scenes that made the movie pretty tough to sit through. Perhaps this would make for a fun time friends to mock but otherwise just skip this one, even though the video and audio transfers were fairly well done. |
Check out some more 1080p screen caps by going to page 2. Please note, these do contain spoilers.