The Morning After **½ (1986, Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Raul Julia) – Classic Movie Review 2044

‘Last night she drank to forget. Today she woke up to a murder. Is he her last hope or the last man she should trust? The Morning After …can be murder”.

Director Sidney Lumet’s potboiling 1986 neo noir pulp suspense-thriller finds Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges teaming up for a mystery tale that starts with a drunken actress waking up in bed next to an unknown man with a knife through his heart. She no memory of the night before. Of course the question is, did she do it or is she now in danger?

Jane Fonda stars as Alex Sternberg in an offbeat romantic pairing with Jeff Bridges as ex-cop and recovering alcoholic Turner Kendall, who is unsympathetic to her plight but in her desperation she needs to trust to help her.

That’s the good news for thriller buffs, but the excitement generated by the promising premise and alluring stars erodes and is eventually largely wasted since both the ensuing story and characters involved in it are perilously thin and underwritten. The films starts well with the opening shock and the long sequence where Fonda cleans up the dead man’s apartment, but nothing can disguise that there’s a weak conclusion that leaves you dissatisfied.

The dialogue just isn’t smart enough and screenwriter James Hicks (aka producer James Cresson) hasn’t really found a way of successfully disguising the identity of the movie’s villain. It’s his first and only produced screenplay. He died on February 29 2004, aged 69.

Still, as you’d expect, double Oscar-winner Fonda does very well indeed in a charismatic turn in peroxide blonde hair as the woman in peril and she was honoured with an Oscar nomination – her seventh. It is reminiscent of performance as Bree Daniels in her classic movie Klute (1971). It’s her last Oscar nominated role before she retired from films for 15 years after Stanley & Iris in 1990. Fonda was beaten to the Oscar by Marlee Matlin for Children of a Lesser God in 1986.

Meanwhile Bridges is as usual dependable, solid and charismatic as the ex-cop who helps her and Raul Julia is an asset as always as Joaquin Manero. The film looks eye-catching in Andrzej Bartkowiak’s stylish cinematography, and Lumet’s typically capable and intense direction makes the best of what’s going. You can see why it got iffy reviews and wasn’t a hit, but it’s still fairly entertaining in its hokey way, though it’s nowhere near as good as Bridges’s similar previous thriller Jagged Edge (1985) with Glenn Close. Both films feature a knife as the murder weapon and doubt whether the female protagonist can trust Bridges’ character.

Also in the film are Raul Julia, Diane Salinger, Richard Foronjy, Kathleen Wilhoite, Geoffrey Scott, Frances Bergen, Rick Rossovich and James Hanke. Future Oscar winner Kathy Bates has a walkon as a neighbour on Mateo Street.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2044

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