Word: lemmons
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...film stars Jane Fonda as a television news reporter for a Los Angeles station who wants desperately to break out of fluffy features and into hard news. Jack Lemmon plays the supervisor of a nuclear plant's control room and Michael Douglas plays the free-lance cameraman who secretly films Lemmon and his control panel during a near-disaster at the plant. Fonda and Lemmon are well-known supporters of liberal causes and are both outspoken opponents of nuclear power. Douglas, however, is not a political activist and as producer of the film, has a considerable financial stake...
Here is the center of the problem. Fonda apparently sees the film as political, but recognizes that it must be entertaining as well. Douglas is concerned that with Fonda and Lemmon as stars, if the film gains a reputation as a tirade against nuclear power, few of the upstanding middle Americans he wants to fill those 800 theaters will go to see it. So for now, at least, Douglas emphasizes in interviews that "the film is a thriller. It has to work first as entertainment," and tries to downplay the clear political message of the film's nuclear power sequences...
Fonda, a "Happy news" reporter seeking a more substantial story, goes with cameraman Douglas to film a special at a nuclear power plant outside Los Angeles where Lemmon is the control-room supervisor. While getting the standard tour from the plant's public relations man, buzzers ring, bells clang, the control panel lights up like a Christmas tree gone berserk, and the building shakes. Clearly, something is wrong...
...rushes back to the station, convinced that she has a story that will catapult her into hard news and out of fluff. But the station manager kills the story, after conferring with the power company's P.R. man. Fonda and Douglas keep trying to get the story out, and Lemmon joins their effort. The accident has alerted him to serious problems in the plant's safety precautions and he finds that inspection documents have been falsified. Lemmon tries, unsuccessfully, to prevent the plant from starting up again. As in any good thriller, Fonda, Douglas, and Lemmon meet again...
...Couple. The film adaptation of Neil Simon's funniest and most endearing play that isn't too funny and not very endearing. Matthau is a good Oscar--he can play these roles in his rumpled sleep, but Jack Lemmon "acts" too much, and his whine has none of Randall's or Carney's dingy charm...