About Last Night (1986 film)

About Last Night (stylized as "About Last Night...") is a 1986 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Edward Zwick, 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. The film was both critically and commercially successful, and was remade with a predominantly Black cast in 2014.
In Chicago, Daniel "Danny" 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 Danny's eye and they flirt by the beer keg. She and her friends, Joan and Pat, attend the game's afterparty at Mother's, where Debbie again runs into Danny, with whom Pat flirts and to whom Joan takes an immediate dislike. Danny and Debbie wind up back at his apartment and have sex, after which she hastily leaves.
The next day, Danny 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, whereupon Danny 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: Danny 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 Danny 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", Danny and Debbie'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 Danny, 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 Danny's drunken objections. Upon Debbie's return home, Danny expresses his unhappiness and ends their relationship. Debbie immediately moves out of their apartment and back in with Joan.
Danny and Debbie both date other people, but he begins to regret their breakup. Some time later, Danny 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, Danny 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, Danny partners with Gus to revitalize the Swallow into an old-school diner, achieving his dream. That summer, at another softball game, Danny and Bernie see Debbie riding her bicycle through the park with Joan, who encourages her to talk to Danny. She approaches him and they both express regret at how their relationship turned out. As Debbie begins to turn away, Danny 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 Danny to run after her, and the camera pans out to see Danny and Debbie passing through the park.
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.
The film was a box office success, grossing $38,702,310 domestically. It was the 26th highest-grossing film of 1986 in the United States, and the 10th highest-grossing R-rated film of 1986.
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." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "A−" on scale of A to F.
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." 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." 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." 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".
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.