Set in Marin County, California, the film follows George (Finney) and Faith Dunlap (Keaton), whose deteriorating marriage, separation and love affairs devastate their four children.

The title of the film alludes to an accounting rule known in English as "shooting the moon" in the scored card game hearts.

Shoot the Moon premiered on February 19, 1982 to mostly positive reviews, but was deemed a box-office failure, having grossed only $9.2 million in North America.

George is preparing to attend an awards banquet in his honor, when he makes a phone call to Sandy, a single mother with whom he has begun an affair.

Jill, Marianne and Molly also meet Sandy, who harbors cynicism towards them and views them as a distraction in her sexual affair with George.

Faith falls into depression, but is elated when she begins a relationship with Frank Henderson, a contractor she has hired to build a tennis court on the grove of the farmhouse.

One day, George visits the farmhouse, aggressively requesting to Faith that he be able to give Sherry her birthday present, a typewriter.

After Molly lets her back into the house through a side door, Faith comforts a sobbing Sherry, and George leaves ashamed.

George returns Sherry to the farmhouse, where Faith invites him to visit the tennis court and meet Frank's friends.

[6] "When I started to write this screenplay years ago," he said, "I looked around me and all the marriages were collapsing, and the real victims of these marital wars were the children.

[7] After Ladd was fired from Fox in 1979, Parker discussed the project with Sherry Lansing, the studio's head of production, who balked at the film's proposed budget of $12 million.

For the role of George Dunlap, Parker first approached Jack Nicholson, who declined due to the script's subject matter.

"[9] Appearing as George and Faith's four children are Dana Hill as Sherry, Tracey Gold as Marianne, Viveka Davis as Jill and Tina Yothers as Molly.

[2] During pre-production at 20th Century Fox, Parker, producer Alan Marshall and production designer Geoffrey Kirkland spent several months searching for houses to depict the Dunlap family home.

Other filming locations included California Street, the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, Sea Cliff and St. Joseph's Hospital.

[10] "It was ready for release in October of 1981," Goldman said in Peter Biskind's book Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America (2010).

[19][20] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times appreciated the storytelling, stating, "Despite its flaws, despite its gaps, despite two key scenes that are dreadfully wrong, Shoot the Moon contains a raw emotional power of the sort we rarely see in domestic dramas.

"[21] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby commended the acting, notably the performances of Finney, Keaton, Allen and Peter Weller, and compared the film to Kramer vs. Kramer (1979) and Ordinary People (1980), describing it as "a domestic comedy of sometimes terrifying implications, not about dolts but intelligent, thinking beings.

"[22] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune called the film "an exceptionally strong family drama, with enough surprises to qualify as lifelike.

"[23] A negative review carried by Variety termed the film "a grim drama of marital collapse which proves disturbing and irritating by turns.

Though Parker's way of going for the jugular can be very effective in the big moments, he lets lots of small, deliberately banal domestic scenes just dribble away.

[26][27] It was one of two films directed by Parker to appear at the festival, the other being Pink Floyd – The Wall (1982), which was shown out of competition.