Movie · 1986 · Thriller, Mystery, Romance, Crime · 1h 42m · R · English
Curator score: 1.8/10 (13.3K ratings)
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?
Overview
Failed actress Alex Sternbergen wakes up hungover one morning in an apartment she does not recognize, unable to remember the previous evening -- and with a dead body in bed next to her. As she tries to piece together the events of the night, Alex cannot totally rely on friends or her estranged husband, Joaquin, for assistance. Only a single ally, loner ex-policeman Turner Kendall, can help her escape her predicament and find the true killer.
Ratings
Curator score: 1.8/10
IMDb: 5.9/10
Letterboxd: 2.94/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 61%
TMDB: 6.0/10
Director
Sidney Lumet
Production
American Filmworks, Lorimar Motion Pictures
Cast
Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Raúl Juliá, Diane Salinger, Richard Foronjy, Geoffrey Scott, James "Gypsy" Haake, Kathleen Wilhoite, Don Hood, Bruce Vilanch, Kathy Bates, Frances Bergen, Michael Prince, Fran Bennett, Michael Flanagan, José Angel Santana, Bob Minor, George Fisher, Rick Rossovich, Laurel Lyle
Curator Review
Verdict
A slick, moody neo-noir with a strong central performance from Jane Fonda and a genuinely intriguing setup, but the film never fully pays off its premise. It’s best appreciated as a star-driven 80s thriller with noir echoes rather than a top-tier mystery.
Best for
fans of neo-noir and Hitchcockian setups
viewers interested in 1980s adult thrillers
Jane Fonda admirers
people who like morally messy, hangover-fueled mystery plots
Skip if
you want a tightly plotted whodunit
you’re looking for sustained suspense or big twists
you dislike dated 80s thriller rhythms
you prefer polished genre films with a stronger payoff
Overview
The Morning After starts with a terrific hook: a blackout, a dead body, and a woman who may be the killer. Sidney Lumet gives the opening stretch a sharp, uneasy charge, and Jane Fonda leans into the character’s wrecked, defensive energy with real commitment. The film has the ingredients of a classic noir, but filtered through 1980s cynicism and a more overtly adult, bruised sensibility.
Worth noting
What keeps it from fully landing is that the mystery thins out as it goes, and the script doesn’t always know how to balance suspense, character study, and romance. Still, there’s enough atmosphere, performance, and urban grit to make it worthwhile if you’re in the mood for a flawed but watchable studio thriller.
Bottom line
It plays best as a late-period Lumet curiosity: less essential than his great work, but still interesting for how it retools old noir machinery around alcoholism, self-destruction, and damaged trust. The result is uneven, but never dull for long.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Rafael "Mister Movie" Jovine (3★) · 111 likes
Action! - Lumet/Pollack: The Fight of the Century
This film goes to show the power of Lumet and Jane Fonda. You know? The fact that a picture that is essentially a sleazy stalker thriller was even considered for an Oscar, is both astonishing and baffling.
Indeed, Fonda received a nomination for her performance in this picture, in which she portrays an underemployed actress who is tormented by a wandering corpse, with someone evidently trying to frame her for the murder.… more
matt lynch (3★) · 82 likes
Interesting as both an inadvertent sequel to KLUTE and by extension a Fonda metatext.
KYK (2.5★) · 74 likes
jeff bridges is ~casually racist~ so let's ignore that but this is basically jane fonda's the flight attendant where she is an alcoholic with an iconic mayo obsession.
Penny_S (5★) · 70 likes
The Big Noirvember 15/30prompt 20 - Studio: Warner Bros.
A traditional noir thriller that’s grittier, more realistic & violent than would have been permitted in the 1940s. Jane Fonda brings a sympathetic quality to her character Alex, an alcoholic/washed up actress & a mean drunk, who has given in to her alcoholism & often blacks out. Easy on the eyes 1980s Jeff Bridges plays Turner, an ex cop who has a chance encounter with Alex, & gets caught up in trying to save… more
theironcupcake (0.5★) · 66 likes
"I am an actress... was. I was even good. They were grooming me to be the new Vera Miles.""The new who?""Hahahaha! Exactly! Exactly. I was supposed to replace somebody the audience didn't even know was missing."
Noirvember #15
Who knew that there was such a thing as Thanksgiving neo-noir, much less one directed by Sidney Lumet?
I haven't been this baffled by misuses of talent since Castaway, coincidentally (or is it?) also released in 1986. With only three… more
1987 · Crime, Thriller, Drama · 1h 42m · R · Curator 8.3/10 (25.8K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, MGM Plus, Philo, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
For viewers who like deception, shifting alliances, and a cool, controlled thriller about trust and manipulation.