I don't know which pushes the limits of cerebral capacity more: figuring out your Alternative Minimum Tax or the plot of this movie. The opening shot in black and white is certainly an eye-opener. (The opener apparently references the film noir classic of the same title, D.O.A., 1949-1950, but the 1988 offering is not a remake) Prof Dexter Cornell, played by Dennis Quaid, stumbles into a police station to report a murder. The first question of course is who was murdered to which Quaid responds with his memorable but simple answer, "I was." Quaid plays an English professor-novelist who says, at some point, that English professors don't inspire the kind of passion to be victims of premeditated murders, which is I guess the point of D.O.A.: not even English professors are completely without risk. But don't let this movie fool you. Being an English professor is sort of like flying, it's one of the safest ways to travel.
The rest of the movie is a flashback entirely from Cornell's point of view in which the events leading up to his entry into the police precinct are retraced, which turns out to be two days. The movie shifts back into color, and we are taken back to the morning of two days ago in Cornell's writing class. The first hint of a plot is an unpublished novel written by one of Cornell's students, Nick Lang. Cornell had promised to read the work but delayed. After class, when Cornell is dashing off, presumably to another class or a meeting, Lang runs after him through the halls begging him to read his work. At one point, the student says he will kill himself if the prof dislikes his novel. A couple of scenes later, guess what? Lang is turned into mush, presumably having killed himself by throwing himself from an undergrad dorm window. Cornell's office just happens to be underneath, and the body hits the window before becoming a human pancake. (I have never heard of student dorms being above professor's offices on a college campus, but that is one of the many strange coincidences that permeate this film.) The incident does not stop Cornell and one of his colleagues from celebrating in his office shortly thereafter.
But this is just the beginning. A whole back-story about Lang emerges about him having been put through college on the tab of an older wealthy lady who shot a prowler-thief in her house 20 years previous to the events of the movie. As an interesting twist, it turns out Lang is the son of the slain thief. On top of that, Cornell's marriage is ending. He gives his soon-to-be ex-wife a toy Ferris Wheel and she gives him the divorce papers, a rather odd exchange of Christmas presents. They attend a university social function where he makes a drunken fool of himself. But to add to the twists, the event is sponsored by guess who? The lady financing the late student-writer.
It is never fully explained exactly what Cornell writes. We gather he had 4 or 5 successful books, probably novels, but has had nothing for the last four years. But what he is good at is the bottle. He goes to a bar and encounters a young woman who turns out to be the daughter of the lady of the student who killed himself. It's starting to sound like the nursery rhyme "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." The girl is dragged out from the bar by one of the lady's henchmen leaving Cornell to his own devices. But he is not alone. He ends up drinking himself into a frenzy with one of his students, played by Meg Ryan.
Next morning, he wakes up in Ryan's freshmen women's dorm room. One of thing about this movie: Quaid keeps waking up in places after having conked out. Luckily, he did nothing that would be reported in the gossip column of the university newspaper and jeopardize his tenure. But he feels worse than having a hang-over. He drags himself to the university hospital only to find that he has been poisoned. The lethal chemistry has been absorbed by the body enough that he only has 24 to 48 hours to live. And now he has to find out not only the who but the why. Sort of like a Clue game for geniuses, DOA has many pieces of the puzzle, and Cornell has to figure out their arrangement before he falls over for the last time, and not just from the numerous shaken-not-stirred martinis. Martinis and poison go well together to accelerate the demise of the poor victim. When the pieces start falling into place, they are like nothing you would expect.
The film moves a mile-a-minute, with people getting knocked over the head with things, people chasing through tar pits, and of course a short episode at the compulsory carnival. Seems like suspense movies from the 1980's until the mid-1990's always have a scene where the protagonist is stumbling through a carnival or bizarre of some sort late in the evening to add to his already dazed-and-confused condition. Some of the action is a bit unbelievable but what saves it are the fine performances of all the leads, particularly Quaid who keeps you wanting to find out with him what is really going on. Certainly not the best movie of its type, but it has a look and feel all its own. So take a break from trying to figure out your Alternative Minimum Tax depreciations and check this film out.
The rest of the movie is a flashback entirely from Cornell's point of view in which the events leading up to his entry into the police precinct are retraced, which turns out to be two days. The movie shifts back into color, and we are taken back to the morning of two days ago in Cornell's writing class. The first hint of a plot is an unpublished novel written by one of Cornell's students, Nick Lang. Cornell had promised to read the work but delayed. After class, when Cornell is dashing off, presumably to another class or a meeting, Lang runs after him through the halls begging him to read his work. At one point, the student says he will kill himself if the prof dislikes his novel. A couple of scenes later, guess what? Lang is turned into mush, presumably having killed himself by throwing himself from an undergrad dorm window. Cornell's office just happens to be underneath, and the body hits the window before becoming a human pancake. (I have never heard of student dorms being above professor's offices on a college campus, but that is one of the many strange coincidences that permeate this film.) The incident does not stop Cornell and one of his colleagues from celebrating in his office shortly thereafter.
But this is just the beginning. A whole back-story about Lang emerges about him having been put through college on the tab of an older wealthy lady who shot a prowler-thief in her house 20 years previous to the events of the movie. As an interesting twist, it turns out Lang is the son of the slain thief. On top of that, Cornell's marriage is ending. He gives his soon-to-be ex-wife a toy Ferris Wheel and she gives him the divorce papers, a rather odd exchange of Christmas presents. They attend a university social function where he makes a drunken fool of himself. But to add to the twists, the event is sponsored by guess who? The lady financing the late student-writer.
It is never fully explained exactly what Cornell writes. We gather he had 4 or 5 successful books, probably novels, but has had nothing for the last four years. But what he is good at is the bottle. He goes to a bar and encounters a young woman who turns out to be the daughter of the lady of the student who killed himself. It's starting to sound like the nursery rhyme "The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." The girl is dragged out from the bar by one of the lady's henchmen leaving Cornell to his own devices. But he is not alone. He ends up drinking himself into a frenzy with one of his students, played by Meg Ryan.
Next morning, he wakes up in Ryan's freshmen women's dorm room. One of thing about this movie: Quaid keeps waking up in places after having conked out. Luckily, he did nothing that would be reported in the gossip column of the university newspaper and jeopardize his tenure. But he feels worse than having a hang-over. He drags himself to the university hospital only to find that he has been poisoned. The lethal chemistry has been absorbed by the body enough that he only has 24 to 48 hours to live. And now he has to find out not only the who but the why. Sort of like a Clue game for geniuses, DOA has many pieces of the puzzle, and Cornell has to figure out their arrangement before he falls over for the last time, and not just from the numerous shaken-not-stirred martinis. Martinis and poison go well together to accelerate the demise of the poor victim. When the pieces start falling into place, they are like nothing you would expect.
The film moves a mile-a-minute, with people getting knocked over the head with things, people chasing through tar pits, and of course a short episode at the compulsory carnival. Seems like suspense movies from the 1980's until the mid-1990's always have a scene where the protagonist is stumbling through a carnival or bizarre of some sort late in the evening to add to his already dazed-and-confused condition. Some of the action is a bit unbelievable but what saves it are the fine performances of all the leads, particularly Quaid who keeps you wanting to find out with him what is really going on. Certainly not the best movie of its type, but it has a look and feel all its own. So take a break from trying to figure out your Alternative Minimum Tax depreciations and check this film out.