good back-story, and good acting

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Bright Lights,Big City is one of Michael J. Fox's better dramatic films, in my opinion. Why? Because we gradually see that while his character,Jamie Conway, seems to be holding it together, he is dying on the inside. We start out at last call at a nightclub, where we learn Jamie's wife left him to model in Paris. As time goes on, we see Jamie fall apart, losing his job, dignity, and nearly his sanity in a desperate, hopeless attempt to keep up appearances and fool everyone around him,and himself, into believing everything is alright. The disjointed feel, repetitive flashbacks, and haunted tone of his actions show the viewer that this is a man who seriously needs help to get out of the hell his life has become. Although it might like this was excessive in response to his wife leaving, in the end, we find out what started all this:his mother's long illness and death. She had died a year before, and the drugs, booze, and work fixation had been Jamie's, destructive, way of denying his pain and grief. I will admit this is a hard movie to watch. However, Fox's portrayal of the dark side of the fast lane and self destruction is excellent. As someone who has lost a parent young, I can say it realistically depicts the true damage that grieving can cause, especially when denied for so long. If you want to see Michael J. Fox in a serious movie, watch this.

I recently D.V.R.'d "Bright Lights, Big City," to once-and-for-all give it a real chance. Over the years, I've caught clips of it, but never really saw and/or appreciated it. So, since it's been on T.V. a bit more these days, I decided to D.V.R. it while I still had the chance. I wasn't disappointed, I am a life-long Michael J. Fox fan, and I was glad to have the chance to see one of his more serious post-"Family Ties," "Back to the Future," roles of the '80's. He was real good in his poignant, compelling and touching role as a talented, successful, but troubled and misguided young man dealing with two recent major blows in his life: The death of his beloved mother (A situation I can personally relate to), and his break-up with his beautiful, talented, aspiring model wife. There were parts that were of course depressing and sad, but there were witty, funny, and introspective parts that made this film well worth a try. OH, MAJOR SPOILER ALERT HERE, READ OVER TO END: One main point of this film that deserves true credit is that it didn't go with a truly depressing and downbeat ending; Fox's character really faced reality and decided to go on the right, better-guided path for a change. "Bright Lights, Big City," in my humble opinion, is NO "Back to the Future," by any means, but it did it's job well with story-telling and acting. Kudos to the movie and Michael J.

written by Jay McInerney, who also wrote "Gia". Kiefer Sutherland, Michael J. Fox, Jason Robards, John Houseman, Tracy Pollan and Phoebe Cates, also a small cameo with Diane Wiest as Fox's mother.There are a few insightful moments, but the 80's coke thing is getting old. This movie is preferable to shallow films like "54" and "Wonderland", however. This film has developed its players, Michael J. Fox is sympathetic as Jaime, floundering at his NY job, partying, losing his fashion model wife.Kiefer Sutherland is also appropriately narcissistic, onto the next party, next girl, next high. Fox does not want to turn out like him, and anyone who is interested in his character may want to read the book. If I recall correctly, the book is less than 200 pages.The theme is more realistic in the book; for example Jaime finds himself reading the New York Post; retracted to absurd sensationalism, the meaninglessness of current events, the random anonymity of his life.While some of the scenes now seem contrived, at least the disco scenes are kept to a minimum, and the story is an interesting character study of a young graduate floundering in NY. 8/10

You guys have got to be kidding---this is one of the worst movies ever made, for one simple reason: not only does Michael J. Fox's character not give a crap about anyone but himself, but he is aided along by the fact that every other character in the movie cares ONLY about him! None of them have lives; all of their lives revolve around HIM, and for no reason, since there's nothing interesting about him. A typical example of how outrageous this can be is when he calls the character played by his real-life wife Tracy Pollan on the phone at 3am on a weeknight, and she's not even annoyed that he woke her up. She's all bright & bubbly & "Oh Hi Jamie, what's up? What can I do for you?" Everyone feels overwhelming sympathy for him just because he was (justifiably) fired from his job as a magazine fact checker, for heaven's sake. WHO CARES?? BTW there is another film w/William Hurt called "Accidental Tourist" that has the exact same problem: no one cares about anything except the self-absorbed character, who is boring beyond belief. Avoid these films like the plague!