Full Moon in Blue Water is a 1988 dramedy directed by Peter Masterson and starring Gene Hackman, Teri Garr, Burgess Meredith, and Elias Koteas.
Floyd (Hackman) is the owner of a bar named the Blue Water Grill, located on an island off the coast of Texas. The island town is dying and most of the residents have agreed to leave, but Floyd stubbornly refuses. His wife went missing the last year, and Floyd is determined to stay in the hopes she'll return. His only company is his father-in-law the General (Meredith), left paralyzed from a stroke, and his dimwitted employee Jimmy (Koteas). When a school bus driver and new resident named Louise (Garr) falls for Floyd, he is forced to make a decision about what he wants out of his life.
Full Moon in Blue Water contains examples of:
- Dying Town: The island's town is dying for unspecified reasons, and most of the residents have already packed up and left for other pastures.
- Glory Days: Floyd remains stuck in the past, when his wife was alive, his bar was successful and filled with happy customers, and the General wasn't paralyzed and senile. He spends all day watching old home movies instead of running his business.
- The Lost Lenore: Floyd's wife went missing. Floyd hasn't accepted her death and refuses to sell the bar in case she comes back.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Inverted. Floyd and his father in law the General love each other dearly. Floyd takes care of him after the General had a stroke that left him wheelchair bound.
- Pragmatic Villainy: The land developers are willing to just pay Floyd a good chunk of money for his bat. It's only when he refuses that they stop playing above board.
- Stepford Smiler: Floyd papers over his obvious misery with a jovial demeanor.
- Villainous Gentrification: Land developers are buying up the property on the island, knowing the poor locals will sell because it's a Dying Town. They want Floyd to sell his blue collar bar because it won't fit in with the upscale neighborhood they intend to make, and resort to underhanded means when he won't sell.