The take-home moral of most biopics is that you can be gifted or happy but never both, especially if you're an artist. Reaching for the Moon gets to make this point twice with its account of the tempestuous relationship between American poet Elizabeth Bishop (Miranda Otto) and Brazilian landscape architect Lota de Macedo Soares (Glória Pires). Not only do they have to navigate around Lota's first girlfriend (Tracy Middendorf), and battle for success during the homophobic 1950s and 60s, but they also have to deal with Elizabeth's alcoholism and Lota's mental instability. Director Bruno Barreto doesn't always succeed in carving a clear shape out of the messy raw material, but the film is consistently watchable, and pays due tribute to its protagonists' talent, illustrated by frequent recitations of Bishop's poetry and location work showing off Soares' designs, such as the Flamengo Park in Rio de Janeiro. The atrociously sentimental score is an irritant, but the performances are solid.