Afterglow

How did this movie get rated 6.9 out of 10? Was Nick Nolte stuffing the ballot box? I agree with all who said it was boring and pretentious, but disagree that Julie Christie did much to help it.

"You're the most fascinating woman I've ever met", he tells her after knowing her for about five minutes. Perhaps that will give you a sense of the sophomoric nature of "Afterglow"; a film which tells of two neurotic married couples, one middle aged (Nolte/Christie) and one younger (Boyle/Miller), and their respective interwoven infidelities. With a solid core cast and good technical and artistic capabilities and an interesting premise, "Afterglow" should have offered more than characters we're not given to care about even if we could suspend disbelief long enough to care. Nonetheless, there's enough going for this mediocre drama to make it a worthwhile small screen watch for sofa spuds with an appetite for the subject.

The lives of a has-been-actress, a charming sleazy plumber, a bored housewife and a stressed corporate head intertwined in this low key screwball. If made by studio heads this film would have been hard to swallow, but when handled by the maestro, Alan Rudolph, and starring real actors, it works a treat.

This movie is destroyed by the screenwriter's inability to finish off any of the main storylines. This movie is destroyed by the director's unwillingness to trust the actors with actual characterization. This movie is destroyed by the cast, who seem to have no idea what their characters are supposed to be doing or feeling at any given moment.

The actors say all their lines as if they are great quotes. ALL of them. ALL THE TIME. I'm up for a mood piece every now and then, but you have to maintain the mood. At least with the altered film-speed sequences in "A Clockwork Orange", you've been prepared to expect some quirkiness of technique. Here, it just looks terribly silly (as does the last ten minutes).

The director might as well have put the camera in front of an aquarium full of horny cuttlefish. You get about two and a half minutes worth of entertainment before it all starts to look the same.

A handyman with marital problems (Nick Nolte) meets a housewife (Lara Flynn Boyle) with the same.

This is really about as average as movies get. The cast is decent, with Lara Flynn Boyle leading the way. Julie Christie received an Oscar nomination... it must have been a slow year, or maybe it was a "career Oscar", because this is not an outstanding film that needed to be singled out by the Academy.

There is no humor, no exciting twists or turns. This is just your standard film of loveless marriage and infidelity. Not one thing about it really stands out as unique. So, what happened here? Why did great actors sign on? Why did Robert Altman help produce?