The elements in A Walk on the Moon, which is directed by the actor Tony Goldwyn (the bad guy in "Ghost") and written by Pamela Gray, feel miraculously right.

Even when it turns turbulent, the film sustains its warm summer glow, and makes itself a conversation piece about the moral issues it means to raise.

A Walk on the Moon not only effectively captures the emotional development of all its characters, but it also neatly encapsulates the tumult of the 60s.

A film of exceptional emotional honesty.

The actor Tony Goldwyn, directing his first movie, and working from a fine screenplay by Pamela Gray, beautifully captures a moment in which the straitened moral world of the lower-middle-class Jewish characters is beginning to open up -- with necessarily painful results.

Tony Goldwyn, making his directorial debut, lets his cast do the work for him, and they hold up well.

Pamela Gray's script and the way these actors bring the characters to life are the film's real treasures.

Whenever the drama drifts into soap opera, the actors restore the balance.

A nostalgia movie that doesn't get sticky with false sentiment.

Moments of light comedy keeps the tone from becoming too heavy without sabotaging the movie's dramatic underpinning.

First-time director Tony Goldwyn (scion of the family that started MGM) brings a freshness to an old story.

This intimate, bittersweet romance is proof that a familiar story and the trappings of a done-to-death era can still seem fresh and engaging in the right hands.

Paula Gray wrote the script (it was her UCLA senior thesis), and if there are gooey spots, there's also nicely turned, lived-in dialogue and a gentle affection for all her characters.

It believes, in the end, in the decency of most people.