David Denby

“The filmmakers have also created a good role for Jane Fonda. After her jaw-clenching solemnity in Comes a Horseman and California Suite, it's a relief to see Fonda as Kimberly Wells, an anxious, hustling TV reporter with flaming red hair who does idiotic "soft news" features on an L.A. station. To her ratings-conscious bosses, Kimberly (perfect name) is both an expensive toy and a valuable asset, and they take an almost sexual satisfaction in controlling her; smiling and flirting with the audience as she delivers her stories, she is miserably conscious of her whore's performance. When she pleads with the station head for the right to report serious news, her face falls in confusion as the man starts to praise her looks. In the end, of course, she proves herself professionally. Having made a breakthrough in her own life, Fonda keeps returning to the moment of awakened consciousness in her movies; the shift from weakness to strength is now her special drama, her victory, her only true message--like Katharine Hepburn's bullheadedness in the thirties….”

David Denby
New York, April 2, 1979