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About Last Night (1986 film)

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About Last Night
Theatrical release poster
Directed byEdward Zwick
Screenplay by
Based onSexual Perversity in Chicago
by David Mamet
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyAndrew Dintenfass
Edited byHarry Keramidas
Music byMiles Goodman
Production
company
Delphi V Productions
Distributed byTriStar Pictures
Release date
  • July 4, 1986 (1986-07-04)
Running time
113 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$8.5 million[1]
Box office$38.7 million[2]

About Last Night (stylized as "About Last Night...") is a 1986 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Rob Lowe and Demi Moore as Chicago yuppies Danny Martin and Debbie Sullivan, who enter a committed relationship for the first time. Along with featuring James Belushi as Danny's friend and colleague Bernie Litko, the film also marks the screen debuts of Elizabeth Perkins and Catherine Keener. The screenplay by Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue is based on the 1974 David Mamet play Sexual Perversity in Chicago.[3] The film was both critically and commercially successful, and was remade with a predominantly Black cast in 2014.[4]

Plot

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In Chicago, Daniel "Dan" Martin and Bernard "Bernie" Litko, two friends and colleagues in their twenties, discuss their sexual escapades. Later, their recreational softball team, sponsored by local bar Mother's, plays against a local advertising agency in Grant Park and wins. Attending this game with her girlfriends is Deborah "Debbie" Sullivan, who works at the advertising company and is having an affair with her boss, Steve Carlson.

Debbie catches Dan's eye and they flirt at the beer keg. She and her friends, Joan and Pat, decide to attend the game's afterparty at Mother's, where Debbie again runs into Dan, with whom Pat flirts and to whom Joan takes an immediate dislike. They wind up back at Dan's apartment and have sex, after which Debbie hastily leaves.

The next day, Dan calls Debbie at work "about last night", and asks her out on a second date, which she accepts. Afterwards, they again end up in bed together and spend the following day exploring the city, where Dan reveals to Debbie that his dream is to quit his job at a restaurant supply company and open his own restaurant. They begin dating more seriously and move in together, heavily disappointing Joan and Bernie, who dislike each other as well.

As neither has ever been in a serious relationship before, they attempt to navigate cohabitation without much support from their friends. They experience much throughout their relationship: Dan being contacted by a former lover who is married with children, Debbie's boss Steve having difficulty accepting the end of their affair, Joan softening when she begins dating her new boyfriend Gary, a pregnancy scare, and Dan clashing with his boss, who orders him to stop providing supplies to the Swallow, an antiquated diner owned by his client-turned-friend Gus, due to late payments.

Despite having told each other the "L word", Debbie and Dan's relationship becomes strained. It reaches a boiling point at a New Year's Eve party at Mother's, where Debbie witnesses a drunken Pat making advances towards Dan, and Joan discovers her boyfriend is married and returning to his wife. Joan tearfully asks Debbie to take her home, to which she agrees, despite Dan's drunken objections. Upon Debbie's return home, Dan expresses his unhappiness and ends their relationship. Debbie immediately moves out of their apartment and back in with Joan. Debbie and Dan both date other people, but he begins to regret their breakup.

Some time later, Dan calls Debbie at work asking for another chance, but she rebuffs him and hangs up on him. When they run into each other at a St. Patrick's Day celebration at Mother's, Dan tells Debbie he made a mistake and still loves her; she insists she has moved on and their relationship is over.

Hoping to move on with his life, Dan partners with Gus to revitalize the Swallow into an old-school diner, achieving his dream. That summer, at another softball game, Dan and Bernie see Debbie riding her bicycle through the park with Joan, who encourages her to talk to Dan. She approaches him and they both express regret at how their relationship turned out. As Debbie begins to turn away, Dan asks her out again and suggests they go to a great new place, but she suggests with a smile that they just go to "some old joint", signifying that she is aware of his new restaurant. As she rides away on her bicycle, Bernie convinces Dan to run after her, and the camera pans out to see Dan and Debbie passing through the park, hinting at their renewed relationship.

Cast

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Production

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At one point, Bill Murray and Nick Nolte were attached to appear in the film as the lead and supporting role respectively.
A “disastrous meeting” between them caused both of them to turn down the film.[5]

Reception

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Box office

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The film was a box office success, grossing $38,702,310 domestically.[2] It was the 26th highest-grossing film of 1986 in the United States,[6] and the 10th highest-grossing R-rated film of 1986.[7]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 65% based on 31 reviews, with an average rating of 6.3/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "About Last Night will perturb fans of the original stage play by sanding down its pricklier edges, but an amiable cast and sexual frankness make this a pleasantly grounded romantic comedy."[8] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[9] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.[10]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave it 4 out of 4 stars, writing in his review that "About Last Night . . . is one of the rarest of recent American movies, because it deals fearlessly with real people, instead of with special effects."[11] The lead performances were especially praised, with Ebert writing, "Lowe and Moore, members of Hollywood's 'Brat Pack,' are survivors of last summer's awful movie about yuppie singles, St. Elmo's Fire. This is the movie St. Elmo's Fire should have been. Last summer's movie made them look stupid and shallow. About Last Night . . . gives them the best acting opportunities either one has ever had, and they make the most of them."[11] Sheila Benson of the Los Angeles Times called it "[t]ender, marvelously well played (by almost everyone) and thoroughly engaging. When it comes to the current sexual skirmishes between men and women, screenwriters Tim Kazurinsky and Denise DeClue [...] know every inch of enemy territory and take no prisoners."[12] Vincent Canby of The New York Times gave it a mixed review, calling it "an occasionally bright, knowing look at the same singles scene that's been explored no less effectively by a number of other, very similar movies".[13]

Soundtrack

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About Last Night: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by
various artists
Released1986 (1986)
Length46:03
LabelEMI America
Producer

The film's soundtrack album was released on EMI America Records. The album includes music by Sheena Easton, Michael Henderson, John Oates, Jermaine Jackson, John Waite, Paul Davis, and Bob Seger.[14]

Track listing[15]
No.TitleMusicLength
1."So Far, So Good"Sheena Easton4:04
2."(She's the) Shape of Things to Come"John Oates3:40
3."Natural Love"Sheena Easton3:51
4."Words Into Action"Jermaine Jackson4:56
5."Step by Step"JD Souther4:27
6."Living Inside My Heart"Bob Seger3:28
7."Trials of the Heart"Nancy Shanks4:28
8."'Til You Love Somebody"Michael Henderson4:00
9."If We Can Get Through the Night"Paul Davis4:27
10."True Love"The Del-Lords3:47
11."If Anybody Had a Heart"John Waite4:34

Personnel

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References

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  1. ^ "About Last Night... (1986)". AFI Catalog of Feature Films.
  2. ^ a b "About Last Night... (1986)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  3. ^ "The Roy Faires Collection – Interview with Edward Zwick (1986)". Texas Archive of the Moving Image. Retrieved December 1, 2019.
  4. ^ "About Last Night (2014)". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved October 1, 2016.
  5. ^ Yahr, Emily (September 16, 2015). "Bill Murray has missed out on a lot of big movies — here's every strange reason why". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 1, 2024.
  6. ^ "Domestic Box Office for 1986". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
  7. ^ "1986 Yearly Box Office for R Rated Movies". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on October 9, 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2014.
  8. ^ "About Last Night". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved July 27, 2024.
  9. ^ "About Last Night... Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved January 1, 2021.
  10. ^ "About Last Night (1986) A−". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on December 20, 2018.
  11. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (July 1, 1986). "About Last Night... movie review (1986)". Chicago Sun-Times – via RogerEbert.com.
  12. ^ Benson, Sheila (July 1, 1986). "Movie Review : 'About Last Night': Some Hilarity And Insights". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  13. ^ Canby, Vincent (July 1, 1986). "Film: Mamet Adaptation, 'About Last Night...'". The New York Times. Retrieved August 19, 2012.
  14. ^ About Last Night (Original Soundtrack) | AllMusic
  15. ^ Various Artist: About Last Night..Soundtrack Album
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