Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Sadly Over-hyped

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

In Eugene O'Neill's play, Katharine Hepburn plays the fragile, weak matriarch in a highly dysfunctional family. Just as the title implies, the entire story takes place during one day, and just as the title implies, it's an incredibly long day. Ralph Richardson is the pontificating former actor who longs for his glory days, Jason Robards is the hard-drinking older son with contempt for every member of his family, and Dean Stockwell is the youngest son who's ill but has just as much of a temper as his healthier counterpart.While the family awaits the doctor's diagnosis of Dean's persistent cough, they're also watchful of Kate. She's in perpetual denial, refusing to believe her son is sick, refusing to acknowledge her former battle with morphine addiction, and refusing to admit tat she might be succumbing to temptation again. Each actor has long, boring monologues that don't contribute to the plot; each actor has long, emotional outbursts that show the audience a highly trained therapist probably couldn't help them. This is the type of play that people who say, "I don't like plays" refer to.While there are plenty of reasons that could make you feel like you should watch this film—famous actors, famous playwright, famous director—there isn't really any reason to watch it if you're actually looking for an enjoyable evening. Rent The Glass Menagerie instead if you want to see Kate in a dramatic play; it's actually good instead of pretending to be.

Mary (Katharine Hepburn) and James Tyrone (Ralph Richardson) live with their adult sons Jamie (Jason Robards) and Edmund (Dean Stockwell). Their idyllic upper middle class facade hides alcohol and drug addictions by every member of this dysfunctional loving family. They pick at each other over the course of a day.Director Sidney Lumet puts a camera to this Eugene O'Neill play. These are some of the best ever movie actors doing some compelling work. They are firing off lines like sharp shooters with long range rifles. Nobody is missing a beat. Everybody is brilliant. However, that doesn't make it a compelling cinematic experience. Lumet keeps the play intact which limits its appeal. It becomes more of an act of endurance to stay engage with this family. Its single-minded tone really pushes the audience. Some may find familiarity with this unrelenting onslaught. Others may find comfort in simply walking away.

This is about as good a film as could be made from this material, which suffers from the usual O'Neill faults: it's ordinary, yet stilted; the tragedy seems inadequately transformed; and the language works only through its cumulative yield of tension and gloom. (A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, of roughly the same vintage, covers roughly the same ground-- but it's entertaining and funny and gives you lines you remember later. So does the brutal yet entertaining STAGE DOOR, for that matter, but then comedies don't count.) This is the sort of material that can make you feel proud to be an Irish barroom bore. The actors certainly do good work here, though Stockwell is a little weak in some of his scenes. Hepburn is very good, and this might be her best performance after ALICE ADAMS. Richardson is even better. And Robards comes through in the end. The young actress playing the domestic also makes an impression. The makers rethought the play in terms of a movie, with outdoor scenes and a nice piano score. They did their job and as a motion picture this is a success. It was shot in attractive widescreen B&W but the only version available seems to be a gritty Pan-and-Scan DVD transfer. Oddly...this seems somehow appropriate for O'Neill.

Eugene O'Neill, considered the greatest playwright of the twentieth century, spills the harsh life he had growing up in the story about his drug-addicted mother, abusive father, and alcoholic older brother, all who influenced him dramatically. This film version of his play is a tired, relentless tale that from the beginning is painted as an ultimately tragedy. Though it is a bit long to watch in one entire sitting, the acting holds up for the most part and makes some scenes so full of bold and bruising power. Katharine Hepburn gives one of the greatest performances in her storied career as Mary, the mother who loves all yet cannot defeat the inner demons that torment her. Ralph Richardson is also very strong as the vindictive father James. Jason Robards and Dean Stockwell give perhaps the most complex and depressing performances as two brothers whose relationship is estranged due to the dysfunctional situation of their family. This isn't a happy movie by any means and it is quite long at almost three hours. But, for those willing to watch, it is a powerful story about pain and suffering and family relationships; all filled with amazing performances.