AFTERGLOW
SYNOPSIS:
In the city of Montreal, corporate climber Jeffrey Byron (Jonny
Lee Miller) is about to close another lucrative business deal.
His wife Marianne Byron (Lara Flynn Boyle) is desperate to have a
baby; Marianne tracks her fertility cycle, while Jeffrey tracks
the stock market. Across town, Lucky ‘Fix-It’ Mann
(Nick Nolte), a repair contractor arrives home, and finds his
wife, Phyllis Mann (Julie Christie), a former B-movie actress, in
a nostalgic haze, watching tapes of her old films. As usual. The
marriage is in limbo, Lucky free to womanise as he will, because
Phyllis’s bed is cold. There is something in the past that
haunts them, debilitates them both. The other couple are younger,
but equally debiloitated. The four characters begin interacting
when Marianne phones Lucky for repairs and he offers to repair
more than the lock on her door. Separately, both Phyllis and
Jeffrey track them, discovering, not just the lovers, but each
other, amidst the pain.
"As unpredictable as life itself, Afterglow is an essay
on human emotions, vulnerabilities, desires and making choices.
The juxtaposition of the two different marriages highlights
complexities that delve deep below the surface, and explore the
frailties and charms of the human condition and its
relationships. Beginning superficially, we gleam what is
important to each individual: Jeffrey is excited by the
impossibility of things; Marianne is besotted by falling
pregnant; Phyllis lives in the past through her films; Lucky
copes with his past by fooling around. But we haven’t
started scratching the surface. As the outer layers of each
character unfolds, the facades are stripped away, confidences
exchanged and souls bared. Delving deep into the fascinating
peaks and chasms of relationships, Afterglow’s wonderfully
biting script is filled with pathos, humour, tragedy and
complexity. The distance between comedy and tragedy after all is
very small. Beautifully shot, with a haunting, soulful jazz
score, the performances are stunning - with Nick Nolte and Julie
Christie each bringing their solid experience strongly to the
spotlight. But the film really belongs to Christie, who gives an
extraordinary performance: in one scene at the Ritz Carlton bar,
she will totally break your heart, with not a sound - but with a
tear-filled look that sears right through to the soul. There are
some wonderful lines, and Christie has many of them. Afterglow is
a magnificent journey into the shades, colours and intricacies of
the human condition."
Louise Keller
"It seems highly probable that director Alan Rudolph and
producer Robert Altman one night in pre-production (over a solid
burgundy) came up with the line that is the subtitle to this
film: ‘a comedy of tears’. Such is life. While the
structure and conflict of the two couples in the story is obvious
– and hauntingly echoes some aspects of the unforgettable
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf – it is HOW Rudolph and
his cast deliver this poignant four hander that counts. And they
DO deliver. (As did they all in Mike Nichols’ film.) Only
the final shot in Afterglow (which I won’t disclose) could
be criticised for overt sentimentality and is quite superfluous.
The rest of this marvellous film is emotionally gripping,
intellectually satisfying and profoundly moving. That’s old
fashioned, I know, but we are never more engaged than when we are
witnessing the agony and the ecstasy of individuals coping with
the kinds of problems with which we are all personally familiar:
interpersonal relationships in all their glory and all their
pain. The script never insults our intelligence, the actors are
never found to be merely acting and the cinematic language is
always more than a cynical device. For example, a sparsely used
360 degree camera swivel prompts our subconscious; Mark
Isham’s splendid music likewise; the selection of cuts
between scenes is exquisite. The whole film is a genuine pleasure
– welded in place with pain."
Andrew L. Urban
"Alan Rudolph is one of America's most idiosyncratic and
individual film makers, a protégé of Altman (who produces his
films) and a director who doesn't believe in pap endings.
Afterglow is a far more satisfying film than his dull Mrs Parker
and the Vicious Circle, and while full of obvious imperfections,
the film is still a fascinating, sardonically amusing but deeply
sad look at human behaviour through the eyes of four lonely and
tragic human beings. The film is not as quirky or as visually
stylised as much of Rudolph's early work, possibly because as a
writer he has learnt about the art of self-discipline and has
thus crafted a quartet of intricate characters in this poignant
journey of past secrets, betrayal, parenthood and loss. Perhaps
the film's major problem lies in the obvious diversity of its
casting two pairs of actors representing two very different
styles of screen acting. Neither Jonny Lee Miller nor Lara Flynn
Boyle have the experience or psychological make-up to convey the
genuine honesty of these characters. Their emotional outbursts
have an obvious ring to them, they're unsubtle and hollow. On the
other hand, Nick Nolte and Julie Christie, through their own
life's experiences, present us with the purest and most honest of
performances, and on screen together, they're magic, and that's
what film stardom is all about. But Afterglow belongs to
Christie. In a year of comebacks, hers is the most illuminating
comeback of them all. Still hauntingly beautiful, the camera
focuses not only on the exterior, but on a genuine sense of pain,
anger, and even wry humour that the actress brings to the role
and the screen. She's simply extraordinary, and the purity of her
performance is well deserving of an Oscar. In an industry where
movie stardom is fleeting and rather innocuous, along comes Julie
Christie to shine on the screen once again. For her alone,
Afterglow is worth a visit."
Paul Fischer
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CRITICAL COUNT:
Favourable: 4
Unfavourable: 0
Mixed: 0
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AFTERGLOW (M)
(US)
CAST: Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jonny Lee
Miller
DIRECTOR: Alan Rudolph
PRODUCER: Robert Altman
SCRIPT: Alan Rudolph
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Toyomichi Kurita
EDITOR: Suzy Elmiger
MUSIC: Mark Isham
PRODUCTION DESIGN: Francois Seguin
RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes
AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR: Globe
AUSTRALIAN RELEASE: April 30, 1998
VIDEO RELEASE: Mar 31, 1999
VIDEO DISTRIBUTOR: Buena Vista International
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