The Morning After

Sometime promising actress turned lush Fonda wakes up to find, in her bed, a dead man with a knife through his heart. She panics and tries to flee the state, but thwarted by airport bureaucracy, ends up taking her chances with redneck ex-cop Bridges. Focusing on the central character's struggle towards a tentative moral redemption, Lumet creates a film more intense than tense, more low-key character study than thriller. Fonda captures the duplicity of an actress playing a role, while Bridges' restraint provides the perfect foil for her neurotic mannerisms. But Lumet's narrative economy, sympathetic handling of actors, and superb eye never quite jell. It's as if a talented director has made the most of what he had, when what he had was never quite enough.