D.O.A. (1988 film)

D.O.A. is a 1988 American neo-noir film directed by Rocky Morton and Annabel Jankel. A remake of the 1950 film of the same name, it stars Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan and Charlotte Rampling, and was filmed in Austin, Texas and San Marcos, Texas. It was theatrically released in the United States on March 18, 1988, to generally positive reviews.

Plot
A man staggers into a police station to report a murder. When the desk sergeant asks who was murdered, he answers: "I was." The man, Professor Dexter Cornell, sits down to video-tape his account.

Thirty-six hours previously, Cornell is on campus. He is a college professor, was once a promising writer, made his name and is secure in his tenure, but he has spent the last four years going through the motions and playing it safe. Cornell helps his friend Hal Petersham with his first book.

While Cornell is in his office, a promising student, Nick Lang, jumps off a building right outside his office window in an apparent suicide. This, coupled with the depressing Christmas season, unseasonably hot weather, and a pending divorce from his estranged wife, Gail, whom he suspects was having an affair with Lang, leads Cornell to seek out the local bars for a night of heavy drinking. There he meets admiring student Sydney Fuller and they proceed to get drunk.

The next morning, Cornell, feeling his sickness is more than just a hangover, stops by the campus medical clinic for a checkup. After running some tests, they discover that he has been poisoned and has 36 hours to live. An incredulous Cornell staggers out to try to make sense of it all.

Aided by Fuller, whom he kidnaps by super-gluing himself to her arm, he attempts to recreate the events of the previous night hoping to discover who could have murdered him. The list of suspects includes his wife, who is also the victim of a murder, which the police make half-hearted efforts to pin on Cornell.

It is learned that Lang’s death was not a suicide but was also murder. Cornell also suspects Lang's mentor, the wealthy widow Mrs. Fitzwaring; Bernard, the Fitzwarings' chauffeur; and Graham Corey, a jealous co-worker.

In a subplot, it is explained that Lang's college tuition was being paid for by Fitzwaring; despite her having shot Lang's father years ago in self-defense after he broke into her home and killed her husband. Lang's death is a harsh blow to both Fitzwaring and her irresponsible daughter, Cookie, who in a drunken rant reveals her and Lang's sexual escapades.

Later, after a skirmish with Bernard results in Cookie's unfortunate death, Fitzwaring finally reveals to Cornell that Lang was her son from a previous marriage she walked away from to marry her wealthy late husband, without actually finalizing the divorce from her former spouse. When the jilted lover brought this revelation to Mr. Fitzwaring, he threatened to cut her off from their daughter, forcing Fitzwaring to shoot both men to silence them. With both her son and daughter dead, Fitzwaring ends her own life through suicide.

Back at the police station, Cornell has solved the crime. His friend Hal Petersham had read and was so impressed by Nick Lang's manuscript that he decided to kill Lang and steal the novel for himself. This involved killing anyone who knew that Lang was the original author, including Cornell and his wife, who was in possession of a copy Lang had given her. The tragic irony for Cornell is that due to weariness, he instead gave Lang's novel a pass without ever having read it. Petersham shows no remorse, callously stating it was Cornell's own fault that he believed he had. After a scuffle, Cornell shoots Petersham who then falls to his death out his office window. Cornell resigns himself to his fate.

Cast

 * Dennis Quaid as Professor Dexter Cornell
 * Meg Ryan as Sydney Fuller
 * Daniel Stern as Hal Petersham
 * Charlotte Rampling as Mrs. Fitzwaring
 * Jane Kaczmarek as Gail Cornell
 * Christopher Neame as Bernard
 * Robin Johnson as Cookie Fitzwaring
 * Robert Knepper as Nicholas Lang
 * Brion James as Detective Ulmer
 * Jack Kehoe as Detective Brockton
 * Jay Patterson as Graham Corey
 * John Hawkes as Sloane

Box office
D.O.A. debuted at No. 3 at the US box office. By the end of its run, the film earned a total of $12.7 million in domestic sales.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 60% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B−" on scale of A to F.

Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, calling it a "witty and literate thriller". Caryn James of The New York Times called it "one of the season's biggest disappointments".