Written and directed by Alan Rudolph, someone with an extensive filmography stacked with titles I would at least recommend to the curious (Breakfast Of Champions may not work, but it never feels like anything less than a bold attempt to translate difficult source material into a satisfying movie). Having also worked on a few Robert Altman movies, it’s unsurprising to find that his style could be referred to as Altman-esque. Unfortunately, however, he doesn’t have the same ability to meld the cinematic with the authentic, and the end result, here anyway, is something that fails to resonate.
Nick Nolte plays a handyman named Lucky Mann (yes, that would seem to be his actual name). He is married to Phyllis (Julie Christie), an ex-actress who allows her husband to stray and play around with other women. Jonny Lee Miller is an upright businessman named Jeffrey, married to the neglected and unhappy Marianne (Lara Flynn Boyle). Marianne wants a baby, which leads to her getting things prepared in their home. So Marianne hires Lucky, which leads to some fun and games for them, and Jeffrey, happy to use the situation as an excuse to cut loose and find away to massage his ego, ends up seducing Phyllis, completely unaware that she is Lucky’s wife. Conversations lead to a number of revelations, about love, family, sex, and different gender roles, and viewers know that it’s only a matter of time until the central quartet come together to argue and fight.
Despite the changes in location, Afterglow feels like something that may have started life as a play. There are some other people scattered throughout the film, but it essentially stays focused on the four leads, and everything is based on the dialogue. This is a film that works on a “tell, don’t show” basis, with even the moments that could be purely visual accompanied by dialogue redirecting things back to the featured character of that moment.
Thankfully, the cast are generally excellent. Nolte gives another typical alpha male with the cuddly interior that he has presented in a number of his movies. Miller, wobbly accent aside, is a fantastic flipside to Nolte, mistaking coldness and cruelty for a sexual, macho persona. He oozes insecurity for every minute of screentime, covering it up as much as he can with an attitude of entitlement and indifference, and it’s an enjoyably unattractive performance. Christie is, as ever, a mesmerising screen presence, although she suffers from the script giving some of the worst bits of dialogue to her, and Boyle does great work with the rest of the bad lines, because it is the women here who have to speak the clunkiest and most tone-deaf dialogue.
I would say that anyone who likes any of the main cast members should find this impossible to hate, but that doesn’t stop Rudolph from trying to undo the good work in front of the camera with poor decisions behind it, from the score/soundtrack to the structure of the whole narrative. This is ultimately a film about people who are so hurt, for various reasons, that they are holding themselves back from any chance at real happiness. That only becomes clear in the third act though. While that may have been seen as the best decision for the film, I cannot help thinking that a little bit of reshaping of the script would have changed things for the better. But maybe others will disagree.
The drama works, the comedy doesn’t. The cast works, the writer/director doesn’t. Which leaves this hanging absolutely in the middle, between awful and great.
5/10
If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
No comments:
Post a Comment