The Morning After (1986)

A washed up alcoholic actress (Jane Fonda) wakes up in a man's loft apartment with his dead body next to her ..... stabbed in the chest. She has no memory of the night before as she blacked out. Did she kill him ... or is she being set up? Directed by Sidney Lumet, this is a bust as a murder mystery or thriller but the film justifies itself with a smashing performance by Jane Fonda who received an Oscar nomination for her work here. The rather far fetched screenplay isn't helped by the lackluster direction of Lumet, who has no feel for the genre. There are very few characters in the movie so it's fairly easy to put together who the murderer is. There's a romantic subplot between Fonda and Jeff Bridges as down on his luck ex-cop that doesn't ring true although Bridges is fine in the part. But it's Fonda's raw "let it all hang out" performance that makes this an absorbing experience in spite of the inept writing and direction. With Kathy Bates, Raul Julia (weak), Diane Salinger, Kathleen Wilhoite, Richard Foronjy and Frances Bergen.