Customer Reviews

Morning After [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Maybe the reason that some have negatively reviewed this movie is that it was seen as a thriller. And maybe, in fact, it does fail in that regard. [I'm no expert here; I was actually surprised when the killer was revealed.]

But I viewed this movie as a story of two wounded souls coming together in an unwitting fashion, loving and then wounding one another, and then somehow managing to come back together in the end.

Jane Fonda's performance is perhaps the finest in her career as an actress. She is funny, maddening, heartbreaking, tragic and sexy all at once.

And of course Jeff Bridges gives another subtle and truthful performance. He gives us a man who, were we to actually meet in real life, we might want to distance ourselves from. But there is much more there and Jeff makes you want to stick around to find out what that "more" is. He takes a sterotype and breathes life into him and makes us feel for him.

Please do not let the fact that you may be savy enough to guess "who done it" early on in this film. Stick around for the end. Stick around for the journey these two are on. It's worth the trip.

This was reportedly the first film Sidney Lumet made in LA after working in New York for years. Cinematographer Andrzej Bartkowiak traded his usual black and brown chiaroscuro lighting for sunlit oranges and pastels. This colouring also applies to Jane Fonda who adopts a bleached blonde look to play an alcoholic has-been actress, who was "being groomed to be the new Vera Miles", suspected of murder. It is a nice touch to have made the victim a photographer of female muscle bodies, considering Fonda's fitness empire. The thriller elements of this film are undermined by an awful overbearing score by Paul Chihara and a clumsily staged climax. It works better as a drama with intimate conversations, in opposition to Lumet's tendency to have his actors yell. (Just think of Network). Both Jeff Bridges and Raul Julia work well off Fonda, Bridges in particular, though his fleshiness here makes him look more like his brother Beau. Fonda is quite brilliant in her 2 drunk scenes and her sober world-weary line readings are funny. She seems almost anorexically thin but gets a remarkeable makeover mid-way. I like the cuts in the love scene showing what makes Fonda's character drink. This is the only time the music works. I also like the line given to a friend of Fonda's when she asks for some conservative clothes - "Honey, I'm a drag queen, not a transvestite".

What makes The Morning After worth watching is Jane Fonda's performance and Sidney Lumet's direction. What makes the movie a bit irritating to watch is Alexandra Sternbergen (Fonda's character) and Sidney Lumet's direction. Alex (Fonda) is an over-the-hill actress and a drunk, who wakes up one morning with no memory of how she wound up in bed with the stranger next to her. The stranger is bloody and dead, with a knife sticking out of his chest. She runs, and winds up with an ex-cop, Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges), who eventually thinks she's innocent. Also helping her is her husband, Jackie Manero (Raul Julia), a successful hair salon owner who serves the wealthy. Manero is competent, confidant and wants "in" after years of being an outsider. "Being a hairdresser is what he does," Alex says to Kendall, "not what he is." Jackie and Alex have been friends for years, but married in name only for ten of them. The Morning After tells us of Alex's panic, of the realization that a killer is setting her up, and of the violent but not too surprising climax.

Alex, as Viveca Van Loren, once had an acting career but it slipped away with booze and time. "I saw you on Channel 13 with Richard Egan," a friendly bartender tells her. "You sure were something, babe." Now she's a brittle lush who has blackouts, although resourceful in a selfish kind of way. She knows she had a chance at stardom and can't get over not making it. She has moments of realism. "They were grooming me to be the next Vera Miles," she says. "I was going to replace someone the public didn't even know was missing." Now she's an aging, needy, defensive drunk.

The chemistry between Fonda and Bridges works well. Bridges plays Kendall as smart, open, drawn to Alex but cautious for his own reasons. He was a detective for 10 years in Bakersfield until he was stabbed by an under-age hooker. He resigned when he couldn't get his arm working well again. He's divorced with a daughter he sees occasionally. He's younger than Alex and probably just as worn around the edges as she. What do you do now, Alex asks, what keeps you busy? "Oh, you know," he says, "nothin', daily life." He lives in a worn-out quonset hut and buys used books, often by the pound, which he plans to read some time.

During the day and a half after they meet, Alex and Kendall get close to each other, but cautiously. They also learn who has set up Alex and why. The mystery may not be much, but there is a nice twist at the end. Lumet keeps things moving and gives the movie a nice look at Los Angeles. I wish, though, that he had worked with the screenwriter for a tighter, more forceful plot. The movie doesn't sag, exactly, but it gets a little distracted at times, especially when dealing with Alex Sternbergen.

The movie is dependent on Jane Fonda's skills and appeal. She's a brave actress; Alex may be a thin, attractive woman, but she's also past any bloom of youth. With a hangover, smudged make-up and the wrinkles showing, Fonda isn't afraid to show the woman as she is. Fonda is such a strong actress, however, that after a bit I found myself losing a little sympathy for Alex. Self-pitying drunks are hard to like. Fonda (or Lumet) in my opinion doesn't leave room for much affection toward Alex until the end of the film. In fact, I found myself imagining Alex as being Bree Daniel 15 years after Klute. It made me warm up to her a little.

On balance, I like the movie quite a bit, but I think it has weak spots. Still, it's an enjoyable film with good chemistry between Fonda and Bridges. The DVD picture, to me, looks a little soft but it's not objectionable. There are no extras except a commentary track by Lumet.

I've always liked this film (mainly for the acting) and was surprised to see it released on DVD. The transfer looks great: sharp, solid picture quality, the sound is good. The commentary by Sidney Lumet is engaging. (It is rather amusing to hear him tell how Fonda got drunk before shooting the fight scene with Jeff Bridges.) But there is no commentary from either Jane Fonda or Bruce Gilbert. Just a warning.

People are missing the comedy (intended and not) in their reviews. The script reportedly went through 3 writers and they shot two endings. My friend and I think that Bruce Vilanch (who has a cameo as a bartender in a West Hollywood leather bar) may have written one of the drafts. Jane's virtuoso comic scene in the airport ("What about Vegas? You fly to Vegas?") is priceless as she goes through a whole dramatic act about her dying sister. The drag queen she goes to visit has several funny lines. Diane Salinger has some classic, overdone reaction shots at the climax which are funny! Love it and don't agree with the other reviewer who said it's not involving. You're grabbed from the beginning by the situation, the acting, the glamorous L.A. locations, the cinematography. I'm first in line for the DVD. I wish they'd included the alternate ending, but supposedly there's a featurette and audio commentary by Jane and Lumet.

miss fonda returned last year to the movie screen with the monster-in-law film but with films like the morning after to her resume these are the performances we miss by a great actress.
here she shows a raw and yet vulnerable side as an alcholic actress seeking one last shot at fame and at love and in the process of achieving both is set up as a murderess. there are many great scenes of miss fonda in the movie, but the one that stands out is her walking a deserted street in LA on a morning after. you have been away too long miss fonda your fans are waiting for a return

"The Morning After" (directed by Sidney Lumet) is not a great film, but it does contain great performances, particularly from Jane Fonda as Alex Sternbergen, an alcoholic "never-was" actress who wakes up in a strange man's bed after a drunken binge. Even worse, the man has a knife in his back and she can't remember what happened. Things get worse when the dead body keeps reappearing to terrorize her.

The suspense is fairly well placed, if at times heavy-handed, the plot thickening when a sympathetic former cop, Turner Kendall (Jeff Bridges) comes onto the scene who may or may not be trustworthy. Fonda's scene with Bridges over an impromptu dinner is simply superb where she says, "I used to be an actress," her biting sarcasm mixed with self-pitying pathos and bile.

Like other reviewers, I believe the film is less a suspense film (although it aims for that) than the story of two wounded souls inexorably drawn together. On that level, it works admirably and there are moments of genuine tension as well. The unappetizing aspect is the cinematography and the unappealing apartments with Fonda keeping rank food and an unnecessary number of mayonnaise jars in her fridge. Raul Julia appears as Fonda's hairdresser and ex-husband and Kathy Bates has a cameo as an artist living in the same building as the murdered man.

Jeff Bridges does another great job. What characters this guy can play(!), "the dude", Jagged Edge, Starman, Rooster Cogburn, (didn't see the country western singer he just played, but my wife said he was great). Jane Fonda reeks as an actress, but not too bad here. Probably her best role ever, in my opinion. Story line and character line is just too obvious, but somehow the modern L.A. noir captivated me. Two losers (one a small time actress with a drinking problem and the other a disabled cop from Bakersfield--or was it Fresno? with a past drinking problem) meet improbably and investigate a murder together. A murder it appears Fonda may have committed while in a drunken daze. Silly plot and circumstances, but honestly, good character play. Raul Julia--no one knows who he is today, but a great actor and plays a great role as Fonda's Ex. A lot of holes, but enough going on to make you watch it all the way through and say, "not bad" at the end.

This was an exciting premise, and when I saw Fonda, Bridges, and Lumet's name attached I watched this thinking it would be a forgotten gem. It starts off promisingly...Fonda wakes up next to a man with a knife in his chest. But it's downhill from there. Instead of a taught thriller, the movie digresses into far too much about the two main characters and becomes more of a character drama. It's not even interesting and completely loses focus. The things that happen (and far too few things happen) are unrealistic and disjointed. The plot developments (who is the killer) come way to late in the movie to be compelling in any way. Characters are introduced in the final act that really should have entered sooner to develop any real sense of surprise or suspense. The tone is uneven, even comical at times, which isn't helped by the inappropriate score. Strong performances don't save this mess.

While watching an old Jane Fonda movie one night, I was reminded of this one - The Morning After - which I hadn't seen in awhile, nor had it been on Cable TV. So I promptly got on my trusty Internet and ordered it from Amazon. I was very pleased to have it now in DVD format (I'd previously owned the VHS version, which I sold at a garage sale. Alas!).

I was not disappointed when my treat arrived. I've always enjoyed watching both Jane Fonda and Jeff Bridges, and in this film, they are both "wounded people." He is a former cop, with a tarnished past, who lives in something like those old Quonset huts we used to see a lot - back in the day! - And drives a very old, somewhat rusty car.

Jane's character - Alex - is a fading, aging film star who can only be seen now on late-night TV. Her apartment is in one of those old 1920s Hollywood buildings that are reminiscent of the Golden Age of filmdom. Plus, she has a serious drinking problem.

Which brings us to the opening scenes, in which Jane's character wakes up in an urban loft next to a man, whom she can't remember, and who is very much DEAD. With a knife in his chest.

She scrambles to erase evidence of her presence, and then tries to flee. But she can't get a flight to SF, so in leaving her stalled car in the parking lot, she runs into Jeff Bridges' character. Ah, providence.

The rest of the movie follows the two rollicking and damaged characters as they try to piece together what happened to Jane's character while in a blackout - and solve the mystery.

Oh, and did I mention the Raul Julia character? One of Jane Fonda's character's "exes," he is a charming and conniving stylist to the stars. Fun to watch!

This is a great movie for anyone who loves watching anything about Hollywood and/or wounded souls.

Laurel-Rain Snow