An over-the-hill Hollywood starlet (Jane Fonda, surely not typecast?) wakes up in a stranger's bed, only to find her companion dead with a dagger in his chest. The set up is immediately compelling, but it's the only worthwhile scene in an otherwise strangely unthrilling thriller. The film is a juicy premise with no payoff, presenting just two possible suspects (only one logically implicated), and hustling in a vague motive for the crime, almost out if the blue, just before the final credits. Never mind the actual details, which in retrospect are about as memorable as Fonda's one-night stand. Jeff Bridges co-stars as a benevolent ex-cop from Bakersfield (who meets Fonda entirely by chance), and Raul Julia plays her ambitious hair stylist ex-husband. Which of the two is the more likely killer?
Review of The Morning After
