I know I know you look at the cast and say "Geez, another a brat pack movie from the 80's". However, this movie is really good. The scariest part is how accurate the movie is in portraying the challenge to find true love among young twenty something's in the eighties. All of which still applies today. Did David Mamet know something thirty years ago that we didn't? Even the four main characters and the different personalities they have are easy to relate too and understand because they are all people that we know or once used to know!!!!! Danny (Rob Lowe), a restaurant supply salesman, and Debbie (Demi Moore), an art director at an advertising agency, meet at a baseball game and later link up at a singles bar in Chicago. He's a handsome guy used to one-night stands; she's having an affair with her boss but is looking for something more romantic and less sleazy.
After a one-night stand at Danny's apartment, Debbie tells him, "It's been a slice of heaven." She returns to her place where she lives with Joan (Elizabeth Perkins), a kindergarten teacher whose smart ass tongue discourages most men. Meanwhile at work, Danny's buddy Bernie, a Neanderthal barbaric like fellow (played beautifully by Jim Belushi) who sees himself as a lady killer, queries his friend about his date with Debbie.
The affair continues, and Debbie decides to move in with Danny. Living together proves to be a difficult experience for them. They try out plenty of new positions for sex, but find that coping with each other's habits, quirks, and expectations is far more challenging. Danny's passivity and inability to open up bother Debbie. At one point, he discovers her looking through his private possessions for clues to his past life.
Debbie, of course, wants them to be a couple, while Danny, hiding behind the myth of the independent male, doesn't want to tie himself down and so ends up treating Debbie as nothing more than a live-in sexual object. And if there isn't enough tension between them, Bernie and Joan are constantly trying to sabotage their relationship. Thus the beginning of the end starts when Danny and Debbie use the "L" word after a steamy night of passion. Danny's frustrations with his career spill over into his relationship with Debbie. More frustrations come about with his best friend Bernie giving him a hard time about being with Debbie, losing touch with his own free spirit partier identity and a lack of communication with Debbie. This ultimately leads to a gut wrenching break up scene followed by Danny's painful attempts to get Debbie back after he finally realizes that what he had was special and now wants back what he has lost.
As I was watching this movie I found myself squirming in my seat while these characters struggle to relate to each other. It wasn't very difficult for me to remember that I had gone through the same heartbreaking downfall of a good relationship in my early twenties due to my lack of communication and inexperience regarding matters of the heart like Danny in the movie. And how difficult it can be to move on. My only peace of mind comes at the end when Danny and Debbie decide to start courting again. This time with the realization that they were both unrealistic and naive and that they will be better to each other because of the painful lessons learned. The voices inside Danny, Debbie, Bernie, and Joan speak volumes about the loneliness, anger, self-hate, and fear of men and women who remain perplexed about themselves and the opposite sex. About Last Night is a provocative portrait of young adults. A very underrated movie and a must see.
