Riddler’s Moon (1998)

Film review #659

Director: Don McBrearty

SYNOPSIS: The farmers of Indiana have been plagued by a mysterious plague in their soil that poisons their animals and prevents any crops growing. When Elias, the son of one of the farmer’s, has a vision about a bountiful crop being planted in one of their fields, his Mother is reluctant to believe it, but sure enough, Elias’ vision comes true, and it leads them down a path that requires their faith to see through…

THOUGHTS/ANALYSIS: Riddler’s Moon is a 1998 TV sci-fi film. Set in rural Indiana, where a mysterious soil epidemic has meant crops cannot grow, the son of one of the farmers has a vision of a bountiful crop in one of the fields. He tries to convince his Mother, Victoria Riddler (Katherine Mulgrew) to plant their and trust him. despite her scepticisms, she follows her sons vision and the field yields a huge crop, but the residents of the town are suspicious of this newfound bounty, and wondering why she can grow crops and they can’t. The premise of the film is very much a Field of Dreams set-up, with a farmer fulfilling a vision for reasons they are unaware of, and requiring them to trust it to be rewarded. It certainly does not have the emotional highs of Field of Dreams, but for a made-for-TV movie, it is well grounded, and the drama is gripping enough to keep things going for its duration.

The setting of rural Indiana is nicely set-up and brought to life, although the film was shot entirely in Luxembourg. The residents of the town are brought to life and have a certain familiarity to them which again helps the setting seem authentic. The main criticism I have of this film is that it is often very vague about what it building up to: it’s established that it has something to do with aliens coming to visit, but even at the end, we don’t really get a pay-off, rather just a narration that the aliens rejuvenated the fields and left, offering no insight into how or why this whole set-up occurred. Part of that ambiguity is fine, but some of it is so vague that it doesn’t really offer any kind of conclusion. Part of this might be that the film went through a lot of rewrites and adjustments, including inputs from different network executives, so perhaps the end product was just a case of a compromise that satisfies no one. There was also the point at which the townsfolk simply change their minds and help out the Riddlers, after spending most of the movie suspicious that they are the only ones who can grow crops: it just didn’t seem like there was a pivotal moment which caused them to change their minds. Despite these flaws and an overwhelming sense of vagueness probably derived form its multiple rewrites, Riddler’s Moon has some solid drama and performances, with enough heart and charm to make it watchable, particularly for a TV movie. It’s not quite Field of Dreams, but pulls off the emotional moments when it counts.