Bright Lights, Big City

In NYC, Jamie Conway (Michael J. Fox) is drinking and doing drugs until the clubs close. He had lied about being fluent in French and has a fact-checking job on Gotham Magazine. His boss Clara (Frances Sternhagen) has a rush French job expecting him to fail. His co-worker Megan (Swoosie Kurtz) tries to help him. His best friend Tad Allagash (Kiefer Sutherland) is even worst. His model wife Amanda (Phoebe Cates) had left him behind for Paris and he's still struggling with his mother (Dianne Wiest)'s death. He becomes obsessed with a New York Post story about a coma baby. He gets set up on a date with Vicky (Tracy Pollan) by Tad.

It's the last directing effort for James Bridges. It's not nearly as cheesy as Perfect but he's been on a downward slide for awhile. The biggest problem is that Michael J. Fox doesn't fit this role. He doesn't have the required darkness. He has a beautiful lightness that can't be extinguished no matter how hard he tries. Otherwise, the movie has the overall sense of a time and a place. With Kiefer Sutherland in the lead, this could have been something special.