There’s no way around it; Sean Pean is quite simply one terrific actor. In Racing with the Moon he plays a small town boy on the brink of getting drafted and shipped to WWII, portraying the role of a rough on the outside, poetic in the inside boy who likes to play the piano and is secretly destined to things bigger than this old town. And does all this remarkably well and without a slightest sign of pretentiousness or insincerity.

Nicolas Cage, playing the role of his best buddy with a knack of always getting him in ways of trouble performs also strongly here and makes for a memorable screwup who misses direction in his life.

I’m always more than a bit suspicious when watching a period picture not based on historical events as they tend to just ride on the nostalgia factor, presenting the past as them good old days. There’s a little of that also going on here, but it never requires one to feel any real affection to the era. Racing with the Moon keep its focus tightly on the personas instead and manages to deal with universal themes of coming to age that are still as relevant as they were in the 40s.

80s-o-meter: 54%

Total: 92%