Product Description

Who's the guy lying next to her? How did they meet? All Alex knows is that he's as dead as a toe-tagged John Doe. "He had a heart attack?" Alex's ex asks over the phone. "From a knife in the chest," she retorts. Two-time Academy Award winner Jane Fonda earned her seventh Oscar nomination* as Alex, an alcoholic has-been actress cast in the real-life role of Suspect #1. Panicked at facing the police, Alex runs for it - right into the battered convertible of a washed-up former cop (Jeff Bridges). Their uneasy alliance draws them nearer each other and closer to the startling truth behind the murder. Director Sidney Lumet (The Verdict) draws strong performances from his leads and an ensemble that includes Raul Julia and Kathy Bates. The murder happened the night before. But the real mystery begins The Morning After.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary:Commentary by Jane Fonda, Director Sidney Lumet and Producer Bruce Gilbert
Featurette

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27099 in DVD
• Brand: FONDA,JANE
• Released on: 2005-08-30
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 103 minutes

Customer Reviews

A Story of Wounded Souls
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.

Not first rate but well-lit
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".

too long absent from the screen
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