A Look Back: Racing With The Moon

Lately I have been writing a lot about loving certain men I didn't give a second thought to when I was younger. I guess as my thirties continue to speed by this is a clear sign I am getting old! It is interesting to me how many men I have watched for years, that looking back on their work, I now look at them in an entirely different light.

While putting together my Oscar pieces for this past weekend posts, one of my stories was going to be 'Favorite Oscar Winners'. I ultimately dropped the idea, but not before choosing a few images of one of my favorite actors, Sean Penn. I have loved Sean's work as an actor since I was a kid. I respect his choices and especially his not giving a fuck about what anyone thinks about anything, but what he puts on the screen. I love the good he does in the world and that he is his own man, one many love and one many do not.

As part of my research, I pulled out one of my favorite of Penn's movies, maybe one of the first movies I saw him in, Racing With The Moon. As I watched, I was all of sudden turned on by the actor and his character Henry in a way I had never experienced the first two times I saw the movie.

Although I love her on Downton Abbey and loved her in Ordinary People, I always found Elizabeth McGovern more appealing because of who she is more than what she portrays on screen. I often find her performances a little off, but really like her in Racing With The Moon. It might have been her off screen relationship with Penn. Penn and McGovern were engaged for a short time before he was whisked away, and far from his comfort zone, by Madonna.