I think I've only got one more TV movie to go before Keanu started to truly lead movies and the penultimate one was Under the Influence, a TV movie staring Andy Griffith and an ensemble cast that aired on CBS in 1986.
When I was growing up, I absolutely loved cheesy TV movies, mainly to make fun of them and not to learn any valuable lessons. Many years later I made some friends who had also done the same thing, and we even started a podcast to talk about these awful 90s "Lifetime Movies" (because even if they didn't originally air on Lifetime, they eventually found their way there). You can even listen to it if you're in quarantine and are really, really, really bored/love old Lifetime movies. It's on the very well known, most notable podcasting platform, Youtube, where we have 42, count them, 42 subscribers.
So when I watch an old "Lifetime" movie from the 80's but usually the 90's I'm generally expecting a good laugh. You know, like when Tori Spelling gains magic Aquaman powers to escape her stalker, or when Tiffany Amber Thiesen's ghost friend possesses a horse in order to stomp the main antagonist to death, or when Yasmine Bleeth discovers that her amnesia accidentally caused her to murder her twin sister. And I only made up of those three things.
I was expecting more of the same when I loaded up "Under the Influence" on Youtube, and I have to honestly say, I was incredibly surprised. "Under the Influence" ended up being a pretty powerful if a little too on the nose movie about an alcoholic and the impact it has on his immediate family.
Andy Griffith plays Noah Talbot, the patriarch of the very diverse Talbot family. The movie opens with about all we really need to know about Talbot - he's a raging alcoholic who finds himself in the drunk tank, yet again. As usual, his son Eddie (Keanu Reeves) has to pick him up from the police station but placates his father on the ride home by offering a bottle of liquor he has stashed under the passenger's seat, something Eddie has clearly done at least a few times before.
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| Very awkward ride home
The rest of the movie is basically all about how Noah's alcoholism is affecting the rest of his family:
*His oldest son Steve has fled to Los Angeles to try to make it as a stand-up comedian, leveraging his father's alcoholism as bits for his act. Steve, to note, is played by real stand-up comedian Paul Provenza who later went on to direct one of the funniest documentaries ever made, The Aristocrats.
*His oldest daughter Ann is constantly trying to get him to pay attention to her, which has led to the downfall of her marriage and eventually her intentionally overdosing on pills.
*His youngest son Eddie has never received his father's approval, causing him to enable Noah's drinking. Eddie begins developing his own drinking problems as well, drinking often in inappropriate places, like while working at the hardware store Noah owns.
*His youngest daughter Terri, who is a talented artist but also takes sole responsibility for looking after her father. After school she mixes dyes into water so she can dump out some of her dad's liquor and refill it without him noticing.
Eventually, Noah drinks too much and collapses at church while passing out the collection plate. He winds up in the hospital where the doctor, who is basically a full-on walking and talking PSA and sometimes advertisement for AA, forces the family to confront Noah's alcoholism.
After some more exposition about how Noah's alcohol abuse has basically destroyed the family, Eddie arrives to visit his father. Noah, good ol' drunk as always, asks Eddie to bring him some booze. Eddie eventually complies, but accidentally drops the bottle of liquor he brought when a nurse walks in on him.
Just a slight case of COVID19
Shortly thereafter, Noah escapes the hospital and winds up at his hardware store where Noah discovers him face down on the table, having drank himself to death.
As if this isn't a bummer enough, after the funeral Eddie sits outside by himself, gun on his lap, contemplating killing himself. If he'd only given his father the booze, he wouldn't have escaped the hospital and drank himself to death.
Guns. Lots of guns.
Confronted by his older brother Steve, Eddie takes off in the car while Steve gives chase. I was literally holding my breath during this sequence, if this movie ended in Keanu's suicide in.a made for TV movie, well I just wasn't prepared for that. A shot goes off off-screen...
1986 John Wick
Thankfully, he doesn't kill himself but instead shoots the ground at his father's grave.
The other aspect that I thought was cheesy at first was the intercut scenes of Steve performing stand-up comedy in LA. It had an incredibly similar tone to an early years Seinfeld episode and I sit here wondering now if Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David weren't at least in part inspired by "Under the Influence."
What's the deal with fathers who drink too much?
BEST PART: An actual believable story with characters who actually make sense, even if this was made for TV.
WORST PART: The doctor talking about AA, it's just a bit too on the nose. Box Office Mojo information: N/A, TV movie
Rotten Tomatoes: N/A
IMDB: 6.5
My Movie Rating: 7/10, but please note, that's on a TV movie rating scale. Look, the movie is a little bit too on message for its duration and in many parts plays out like a 90 minute long PSA about alcohol abuse. That said, for a TV movie, it's finely acted and despite it's sometime too over-the-top messaging, was definitely worth the watch and I'm not mad I gave it 90 minutes of my time which I'd otherwise be using to watch a different Keanu Reeves movie.
Keanu Rating: 7/10. Keanu actually gives a pretty strong performance in this one as Eddie. He didn't win any awards for this or anything, but this is a movie I'd show people who think that the man is a bad actor.
Up next - Ugh, I'm not looking forward to this one, it's the 1986 made for TV movie, "Babes in Toyland," starring Drew Barrymore, Keanu Reeves, and Mr. Miyagi himself, Pat Morita.
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