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‘Morning A fter’ wakes up with a great
hangover and all the thrill of a corpse
A review of “The Morning' After,"
starring Jane Fonda. Jeff Bridges
and Raul Julia. Directed by Sidney
Lumet. A 20th Century Fox film
rated R Now playing at the Classic
Triple.
By Andy Smith
K«l and Black Staff Writer
With “The Morning After” vet
eran director Sidney Lumet is faced
with a difficult challenge: What to
do with an intriguing character
study that unfortunately thinks its a
thriller.
In attempting to meld these two
disparate elements. Lumet suc
ceeds half the time When the
“Morning After” focuses on its star.
Jane Fonda as a bleached blonde al
coholic. it’s an intriguing effort The
film’s attempts at suspense, how
ever. are about as enjoyable as a
can of warm beer on New Year's
Day.
“ The Morning After” is an
abysmal thriller a patchwork of
unbelievable plot twists doused with
an overbearing score worthy of a
“Friday the Mth” sequel
Thanks to a solid cast and the
presence of Fonda, however. ‘“The
Morning After” becomes a wat-
chable effort
As Alexandra Sternbergen. known
in the film’s first half as Viveca Vai.
Ixiren — an aging actress who
(paraphrasing a line from
“Tootsie”) can’t be a has-been be
cause she was never actually fa
mous, Fonda has her best part in
years.
Fonda starts the film with a mas
sive hangover Waking up in a
strange lied in an unfamiliar apart
ment with a corpse, a smarmy por
nographer with a knife through his
Jeff Bridges and Jane Fonda c-omtemplate getting out of another fine mess
chest, she spends the rest of the
film’s three days trying to prove her
innocence and get her act together
At its best. “The Morning After”
is an old-fashioned star vehicle
made enjoyable by Fonda’s gutsy
performance. Crying, whining,
screaming and eluding police, she
plays her scenes to the limit without
crossing the boundaries into campi-
ness.
Despite a lousy dye job, bloodshot
eyes and a number of harshly lit
cioseups (she turns 50 this year),
Fonda’s major drawback in this
change-of-pace role is that her aero-
bicized body is too toned for that of
a hard-drinking has-been.
Jeff Bridges underplays nicely as
Turner Kendall, an unambitious ex
cop from Bakersfield who falls for
Alex and helps her begin to organize
her life. Bridges works off Fonda's
high-powered performance,
choosing not to “out act" her but
rather to quietly absorb her bravura
blows like a sponge.
Raul Julia is slyly enjoyable as
Fonda's estranged hairdresser/hus
band who knows how to endear him
self to his socially elite clients
The relationship between Alex
and Turner is intriguing Fonda and
Bridges create two highly imperfect
and very different people believably
attracted to each other Their chem
istry compensates for a number of
the film’s flaws
Although first, time screenwriter
James Hicks' flawed script forces
the audience to view such cliched
tricks as a reappearing corpse and
hear hackneyed lines including a
sloppy drunk Viveca whining ‘“I
could I could have been a con
tender.” his finely drawn charac
ters salvage the effort. Details such
as Alex’s ingenue hopes of being the
next Vera Miles, a prissy bar
tender's homage to Viveca’s effort
in a film co-starring B-movie it-on
Haul Julia plays a suave but smarmy hairdresser
Richard Egan, even homeboy
Bridges love of watching planes
take off lift Hicks’ characters a
level above stereotype.
Unfortunately, the film's sound
track could add new meaning to the
term stereotype*. Every orchestral
trick known to drive-in viewers is
used in this effort. Whert a char
acter walks toward a closed, door,
the soundtrack blasts an omnious
“da-dum.” Whan Lumet wants to
create a poignant mood, as when
Alex discovers a collection of Nancy
Drew books, the soundtrack be
comes as mawkishly sentimental as
a Walton's episode or a ..lesser
Disney effort As Alex coos over the
books, I half expected docile forest
animals to come sit at the heroine's
feet.
Lumet and director of photogra
pher Andrzej Bartkowiuk depict l»s
Angeles as a city of stucco and
warehouses A number of scenes
are potentially too bright, as though
seen through Alex's hungover gaze
— an unpleasant but sometimes ef
fective technique.
As a thriller, “ The Morning
After” is a tremendous disappoint
ment. The slow moving search for
the killer concerns a man the audi
ence never knew or cared about in
the first place However, as a study
of two characters who've seen
better days, the film showcases an
interesting relationship between an
almost-was and a never-wanted-to-
be who Iff far from porfect, but
possibly perfect for each other.
Ford’s thought-provoking performance makes “Coast” a riveting movie
A review of “The Mosquito Coast, star
ring Harrison Ford. Helen Mirren. River
Phoenix, and Andre Gregory. Directed
by Peter Weir. A Warner Bros release
rated PC-13. Now showing at the Palace
Twin.
By Jeff McGuUton
Htd and Btark Staff Writer
Harrison Ford and Peter Weir, the dy
namic duo who brought us the suspen
seful "Witness,” have reunited in the
fascinating and thought provoking film
‘‘The Mosquito Coast ” Based on Paul
Theroux's best selling novel of the Same
name, it is unlike anything you will see
at the movie theater for a while It is a
sort of harder-hitting ‘‘Robinson
Crusoe” tale of survival
The story makes some powerful accu
sations concerning the America we have
become At the same time it provides a
cynical look at religion and what some
men have come to use it for.
Allie Fox, portrayed quite convin
cingly by Ford, is thoroughly sickened
and disgusted with what he sees as a ter
rible perversion of our country. Com
mercialism, crime, and politics are all
eating away at him For some time he
has talked with his oldest son about how
he plans to pack up the essentials and
leave America behind for good. Finally,
he has had all he can take, and pack up
and leave he docs.
Fox is no ordinary man He seems
possessed with his dream of cutting a
new civilization out of a jungle wilder
ness. He moves his family to the location
in the t.tle, buys the small village of Ge
rommo, and with his own ingenuity and
relentless determination begins to build
what he thinks will be utopia. He does
succeed in showing the villagers a new
way of life and constructing a well-or
dered community, but unexpected
events start his world crumbling before
his eyes.
Ford's character and performance are
highly interesting and sometimes even
disturbing. In the beginning we see a
m.an with a dream, maybe a bit greater
than most men’s, but a dream none the
less. As he starts to realize this dream,
he begins to be transformed. He be
comes a dictator and even slips toward
insanity. Ford handles the transition
very well.
The other issue in the film is intro
duced by the missionary (Andre Gre
gory i Though Fox is well-versed in the
scripture, he does not believe the Bible
works He thinks the missionary, is
wrong in teaching the natives to learn to
live with their burdens. Fox sees no
burden that a wheel and pulley cannot
fix.
The film stirs some thoughts as we see
in the work of the missionary the same
perversion and commercialism that Fox
tried to escape from Many of the is
landers become brainwashed by a wide
screen televison showing mock sermons
in which the missionary likens prayer to
dialing a telephone.
Weir creates the same sort of atmo
sphere that was found in "Witness” in
this film His camera work and actors
capture a feel for life that you know is
there but cannot quite put into words.
Maurice Jarre again scored the 5 movie
with a synthisizer in a soundtrack al
most identical to that from “‘Witness ” It
is just as effective here and only used
when it definitely adds to the film In
fact the lasl half of the movie is practi
caUy scoreless.
Weir gets exactly what he wants from
his actors River Phoenix ( “Stand By
Me”) does an excellent voice-over nar
ration and gives a very natural perfor
mance as the oldest son The Fox family
looks like a real family There are no
lovely hairstyles or finely tailored
clothes or perfect makeups. That is
much of the reason that ‘“'Die Mosquito
Coast" comes off so well
Followers of Peter Weir get exactly
what they expect from “The Mosquito
Coast." Harrison Ford fans will see a
somewhat different side in what is pos
sibly his most challenging role. There is
none of the macho hero or snappy lines
found in his characters of the past, but
no disappointment can be found here
The Mosquito Coast" is an unsual and
aniazii.g treat for movie goers
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