Moment by Moment

1978 "The only thing they have in common... is each other."
3.1| 1h42m| en
Details

Trisha Rawlings, a Beverly Hills socialite suffering from loneliness following the separation from her womanizing husband, develops a May–December romance with a young drifter named Strip.

Director

Producted By

Universal Pictures

AD
AD

Watch Free for 30 Days

All Prime Video Movies and TV Shows. Cancel anytime. Watch Now

Trailers & Clips

Reviews

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.
ironhorse_iv I really hate this romantic love movie. I really doubt, a rich, middle-aged Beverly Hills socialite with an icy demeanor will inexplicably falls for a homeless, drug-pushing street kid, but there has been real life examples of such things happening. Still, the story doesn't give you, anything, but annoying drama from both from the socialite, Trisha Rawlings (Lily Tomlin) and the drug-addict, Strip (John Travolta). Directed by Jane Wagner, Moment by Moment was just stressful and ugly looking to watch. First off, the two actors are horrible. Lily Tomlin does nothing but many blank, expressionless faces throughout this film. The other reaction, we got from her is a hidden disgust face for Strip, or a confused look of how to act like she is in love. Lily Tomlin was a gifted comic actress, but those skills nearly use in this film. Instead, she has little to no personality, and talks like a piece of wood. I don't see how John Travolta's character can fall in love with her, unless Skip had an ulterior motive, like getting the money. Jane Wagner is actually Tomlin's lesbian partner, and has been for over thirty years. You can now tell, due to utter lack of chemistry between Tomlin and Travolta in this movie. It makes sense. John Travolta plays the role, as a droopy over the top, over reacting, over acting, man-baby. He also seem more of a stalker, then a love interest. Most women like men that act like men, not annoying stalker man-child. The first part of the movie has Lily continuing to tell him to stop bothering her. He continues, very annoying trying to make her love him by offering illegal sleeping pills to Trisha. Wow, how romantic. It's like the relationship between a drug dealer and an addict. He's OK about getting drunk, and getting loaded on sleeping pills, but when Trisha mention pot. Strip is livid, because, all of a sudden, he doesn't want her to do drugs. He has standards! What?! This relationship get more confusing, as Strip talks more about his male friend, Gary who never show up in the film, more than anything else. It's like a closet gay man was trying to prove he isn't gay, by trying to sleep with a woman that looks like a guy. John Travolta probably took this role, so people would stop asking him about that question. He seems more like a closet homosexual now, even after doing this movie. The relationship if you call that a relationship, isn't much anything, but a stupid series of breaks ups acts between Trisha and Scrip. When Trisha finally gives in to his love quest, he tells her to stop following him. She continues to look for him, after hundreds of walks outs throughout the film. Give up, woman. Strip is just a character with odd major mood swings. These people shouldn't be together. They don't even look right. The two could have just as easily been playing mother and son or sister & brother, with their identical dark hair and shaggy hairdos. To be honest, the whole thing feels like we're watching an incestuous relationship. Its throw me off, every time, they hold a scene together. It get more creepy when you find out that John Travolta took the role, because he just coming out of a tragic relationship with an older woman himself with actress Diana Hyland, who actually played his mother in a previous movie. Also the movie get more gross, as Lily has a striking resemblance to John's real-life actress sister, Ellen, and they are both around the same age to boot. I'm about to vomit. Lily Tomlin is not pretty at all even if Strip was high on drugs, most of the film. I know the 1970s has a different taste of attractive, but in the modern sense. It's not attracting. The hot tub scene in Moment by Moment is not sexy, but disturbing with all the hair with both the guy, and woman. How disturbing it is to watch two clones spoon together. There is no sexy moments, unless you count how boyish the film makes Travolta. It would certainly get gay guys to watch it. The plot doesn't do any favors here. It's establish that they met before, without even once showing it. It's add a Mafia and a porno sub-plot, 3/4th in the film time-frame, but it's never mention again or resolve. The dialogue is a mess. Lot of time and film wasting dialogue about them talking about minor things or doing childish things like building sandcastles. Honestly, what's the point of this film? That a May-December romance can work? Is the movie about love being stronger than class and age differences because it didn't seem like it was addressing that. Another fault is the film is how clichés it is, even for a 1970's romantic film. I hate the horrible ending, with the picture freezes, and a "Polaroid frame" is placed around them. Gees...it's not like I ever saw that before in a film. The movie could had work if it had a better soundtrack, rather than cheesy sax-heavy music or funky rock music. I hate Yvotte Elliman's music in this. A good Ballard or classical composer score would make this movie, much better. Overall: This movie nearly hurt John Travolta's career. It wasn't until Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction until his career was kinda revitalized. Moment by Moment is not a good movie to watch if you feel like you need to watch a chick flick movie. There are better 1970s love movies than this. Watching this movie made me think, how this moment suck.
mrgb48 I finally saw this stinker after hearing so much about it and it does deserve the bad reviews it's received.I don't mind romantic movies,as long as the two leads have chemistry,but Travolta and Tomlin have none.I know how Tomlin got cast and that was because her partner wrote and directed it,but still,Tomlin is no romantic lead.A great comedienne,but not a romantic actress by a long shot..A couple of scenes made me laugh and that was when Strip said he felt "cheap" when Trish just wanted to have sex with no commitment.How many guys would say they felt "cheap"? And the other one was when Strip got all upset when he told Trish he loved her,but she didn't say it back to him.He ran off like a baby that didn't get what he wanted..I kept thinking that Travolta's sister Ellen looks a little bit like Lily and the sex scenes between John and Lily seemed a little weird...If you're going to make a romantic movie,make sure it has passion and make sure it has depth.This has neither one...In real life,Strip would never be attracted to Trish,so the movie is implausible for that alone..The reviews speak for themselves and the critics were right,but I guess this could be considered a camp classic and a guilty pleasure,so maybe that's all it deserves to be and nothing more..
OlYankee Tomlin can't act, nor can Travolta.There's no chic setting to rescue either of them. Each is on their own, and thus, succumbs to the paper bag. As we watch, moment by moment, the leads sink into a morass of banality.This movie is good for only one thing: getting information from a prisoner who has resisted all other forms of torture. Therefore, this has to be one of GWB's favorite films. Or maybe Rumsfeld.If you're a masochist, you'll love this picture.
sol **SOME SPOILERS** Bored with life and not wanting to face her friends in any of the big parties and artistic social gatherings that she's used to attending Malibu socialite Trish Rawlings,Lily Tomlin, has opted to down bottle after bottle of pills to put her in a state of perpetual suspended animation. While under the influence Trish sleeps it off while a nasty divorce is finalized with her carousing and cheating husband Stu,Bert Kramer.Going to the drugstore for a new bottle of pills Trish is told by the druggist that she can't have them unless her previous prescription bottle is used up. While Trish is at the counter this local hustler and part time drug pusher Strip Harrison, John Travolta, pops in looking for his good and close friend Craig who works at the pharmacy. Strip finds out that he's been busted by the police the day before for stealing drugs from the store room.A shocked Strip then for some strange reason takes an immediate liking to the middle-age Trish offering to give her free of charge some pills that she was refused. It's then, like a man helplessly under some kind of hypnotic spell, for what seems like like days Strip follows and hounds her day and night in and around her beach-front estate until she finally gives in. Trish ends up giving the hungry and overbearing nudnick a piece of fried chicken to quench his appetite and a towel to dry himself off from a cold dip he took in the Pacific Ocean.Trish being all by herself and feeling that she needs someone to do some handy work around the beach house allows Strip to do part-time work for her. Soon the two begin to fit so well together, even though Trish is some fifteen years older Strip, that they shack up and before you know it start to have a hot and heavy sexual relationship.Strip goes through a number of violent and sudden emotional changes in his affair with Trish who's become very friendly with him that has her at times feel that if she as much as innocently says something that's not to his liking he'll explode and leave her forever! In fact it was actually something that Strip's parents didn't say to him that had a very depressed and heart-broken Strip run away from home. This happens a number of times in the movie that shows that Trish, despite all her hang-ups, is by far the more stable of the two. Later Strip storms out of the beach-house over such menial things like him being embarrassed when Trish had a friend Naomi, Andra Akers, over for drinks. Strip unexpectedly showing up with the groceries has Trish tell Naomi, not wanting her to know that Strip is living with her, that he's the delivery boy! This has a hurt and confused Strip angrily reject a tip which she gave him. Hurt and humiliated by Trish making him look like her houseboy not lover Strip stormed out of the house having, a now repentant, Thrish as well as Naomi scour the sleazy L.A red light district trying to get him to change his mind and come back before he ended up getting killed or killing himself. Strip who had earlier found out that Craig have died of a drug overdose, which he felt was really murder,again comes back to Trish and after making up the two become more and more of an item, in the minds of many Malibu residents. It's later when Trish and Strip go to this big party for a local art photographer where Trish's estranged husband Stu shows up together with his ex-girlfriend Stacie (Debera Feuer) the women who's responsible for her and Stu's breakup. Stacie's now new boyfriend mob drug kingpin Dan Santini, James Luisi, is who Strip believes is the person who had his friend Craig murdered. All this is just too much the for poor and emotionally drained Strip who loses his cool and again storms out of the art exhibit leaving Trish looking like a fool in front of all her socialite friends. Including her estranged husband Stu who up to that time felt that he was the only one doing any cheating. Just when Trish feels that she'll have to finally make a break with the very emotional and unstable Strip a number of unrelated incidents happen that in the end brings the two together in of all places the deceased Craig's home! It's there where Strip, with the acceptance of Craig's parents, was living after he checked out. Strip now throws away all the imaginary roadblocks that kept them apart all this time and finally get it on as equals in the romance department. Believe it or not what turned out to be the two magic words that finally broke the ice between them was "Happy Birthday" which Trish unlike Strips parents remembered.