My husband and I watched PAPER MOON with our 11 year old daughter the other night. What a fun, sweet, thoroughly enjoyable family movie. I can't think of a better way to spend an evening at home.

Filmed in the early `70s in black and white, PAPER MOON tells the story of recently orphaned 9-year old, Addie, who falls in with con man Moses Pray. As it turns out, Addie is perhaps a better con than Moses is, and the two of them set out to relieve some unsuspecting widows of their butter and egg money. While swindling their way across the mid-west and surviving a series of hilarious misadventures, Addie and Moses develop a genuine affection for each other, and learn the true meaning of what it is to be a family.

Ryan and Tatum O'Neal both give outstanding performances as the erstwhile father and daughter. In fact, Tatum won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in PAPER MOON, the youngest actress to do so. Other cast members, including Madeline Kahn and John Hillerman are equal to the task; all the performances complement each other perfectly. The chemistry between all of the characters is genuine and very believable.

The black and white print adds to authentic feel of the film. You really believe that you are driving around the dust bowl during the Great Depression. Costuming, sets, and locations are all dead-on Depression era, and lend to realism of this film. Additonally, there is no sound track to this film. You hear every chirp of a cricket, every creak of a stair, every rumble of a car motor. This really puts the viewer there, in the movie, in the story.

Full of a wonderfully effective combination of sentimentality, humor, and cynicism, PAPER MOON stands the test of time. Watch this film with your family. I guarantee, no matter what the age, everyone will enjoy the evening. In fact, my oldest enjoyed this film so much that she "forgot it was in black and white."

No matter what we think of the personal lives of Ryan and Tatum now, (none of our business, anyway) there can be no denying that this Father/Daughter team could act--and what-on screen chemistry they project. Their expressions and timing are amazing as we imagine them using their real lives as valuable experience for the roles. The whole motley crew is entertaining. Con man, standoffish and manipulative young female offspring, exotic dancer, Trixie Delight, played so well by Madelyn Kahn, the bickering of young Addie and Trixie over "possession" of Moses Pray, the rich textures of the rural Thirties landscape. It is a beautiful, beautiful and humorous movie. I wish the father and daughter could have given us more of this wonderful stuff over the years.

Tatam and Ryan O'neal are both great in this movie, Tatum(for her age at the time) is soooo grown up.

I came acrosst this movie late one night on cable, and it is now one of my favorites. Tatum O'neal is wonderful. There are some great extra's on the DVD as well.

Nine-year-old Addie Loggins is the centerpiece of Peter Bogdanovich's affectionate 1973 comedy set during the depths of the Great Depression. The filmmaker was on a roll at the time as he made the coming-of-age saga, 1971's The Last Picture Show, and the screwball throwback, 1972's What's Up, Doc?, in quick succession. Cineaste that he is, Bogdanovich filmed this episodic, character-driven comedy deliberately in black and white, inspired by classics as diverse as Charlie Chaplin's The Kid, Vittorio de Sica's Bicycle Thieves and even John Ford's The Searchers. The result is charming if a bit overlong for the simple story being told. As the film opens in Kansas, Addie just lost her mother, and she is to be taken to live with relatives in Missouri. Enter traveling Bible salesman Moses Pray, a small-time grifter who bilks recent widows out of cash under the pretense that their late husbands had ordered personalized Bibles before their deaths. As a chronic womanizer, he knew Addie's free-living mother and promises to take her to her relatives after he extorts $200 from a local business owner.

The rest of the story is an entertaining road movie centered on the evolving relationship between Moses and Addie as she shows to have a greater gift for scams than he does. A tough-talking smoker who loves radio, Addie is a tomboy frequently mistaken for a boy, while Moses constantly resists his paternal feelings toward her even though they are kindred spirits. Complications occur first with the appearance of a tawdry carnival stripper named Trixie Delight, who threatens to come between Moses and Addie, and then with a bootlegger and his look-alike sheriff brother, who are in hot pursuit over a scam around crates of illegal whiskey. As Addie, Tatum O'Neal still has the distinction of being the youngest actor to win a competitive Oscar, and in her film debut, her unprecocious performance reflects refreshingly confident work from a child. Perhaps fearful that his daughter was stealing the movie, a well-founded fear it turns out, her father Ryan does some of his best screen work as Moses, better cast here than as bumbling musicologist Howard Bannister in "What's Up, Doc?".

As she proved with her hilarious portrayal of Howard's persnickety fiancée Eunice in "What's Up, Doc?", Madeline Kahn is an unparalleled scene-stealer as Trixie, especially as she tries to coax a belligerent Addie off a grassy hilltop. Just before peaking in Mel Brooks' farces and reunited with the elder O'Neal, Kahn shows what she can do to maximize less than half-hour of screen time. Almost as funny is the eye-rolling cynicism of P.J. Johnson as Trixie's indentured servant Imogene. The 2003 DVD has two substantial extras. First, Bogdanovich offers a full-length commentary full of his personal remembrances and sharing a deep well of cinematic knowledge. The second is Laurent Bouzereau's "The Making of Paper Moon", an exhaustive making-of featurette divided into three parts, which covers all aspects of the film's development and production and includes comments from Bogdanovich, his then-wife Polly Platt who did the production design, cinematographer László Kovács, and producer Frank Marshall.