Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962)

Directed by five time Best Director Oscar nominee Sidney Lumet, and written by Eugene O'Neill, this "play" features some of Katharine Hepburn's best acting, for which she received her ninth of twelve Best Actress nominations. However, to fail to mention the other three fine performances by the cast's veteran male actors Ralph Richardson (The Heiress (1949)), double Supporting Actor Oscar winner Jason Robards Jr., and Dean Stockwell (Married to the Mob (1988)) would be to do an injustice to the outstanding performances all around. A powerful exposition of acting skills, if much too depressing to be viewed without some detachment (much more so than even Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)). Though I recommend both, neither are for everyone's tastes.

The Tyrone family is a dysfunctional one, not the least of which is the matriarch's (Hepburn) drug addiction. Her ex-Shakespearean actor husband James (Richardson) is a rather insensitive miser who failed to adequately praise his wannabe actor eldest son Jamie (Robards Jr.), such that he's an alcoholic failure. The couple's other son is the disease weakened, favorite son Edmund (Stockwell), who struggles to learn his family's secret truths, all of which are revealed (e.g. how the family got to where they are now) during the course of this near three hour film. The story is told through a series of scenes, much like a play, in which each character gets to spend at least some time alone with each other character. There are also scenes featuring each parent and their two sons together. The film begins curiously, and outdoors, as each of the male characters "walk on egg shells" trying to keep Hepburn's from going on a morphine binge. Of course, they fail and the root causes of all the family's members problems come to light, one by one.

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