Afterglow (1997, USA)
Written and directed by Alan Rudolph, produced by Robert Altman ,music by Mark Isham with Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle and Johnny Lee Miller 110 minutes, 1:1.85
seen on the 9/18/1997 at the Astor, Berlin
Afterglow is Alan Rudolph's first film since the ambitious Mrs Parker and the Vicious Circle unfairly flopped in 1994. The American writer and director moves back to small-sized character-study, the genre he best knows and which brought him wide recognition with Choose Me (1984) and Trouble in Mind (1985).
Marianne (Flynn Boyle), the estranged wife of Montreal yuppie Jeffey Byron (Lee Miller), hires Lucky Fix-it Mann (Nolte) to make a baby's room - symbol! - in their modern but awful vast appartment. "Why a baby's room? We don't need a baby" says the selfish Jeffrey. "I'm having one, with or without you" argues Marianne. Oddly enough, this is where Lucky appears, and he offers pretty much everything she needs. Lucky's wife, Phyllis (Christie), is an aging former Hollywoodian actress, who keeps herself busy watching her own B-movies on TV, with her glasses on and a glass at reach, blaming herself for the departure of their twenty year old daughter. Guess what happens? While Lucky and Marianne are having good time, Jeffrey finds in Phyllis the motherly presence he ever waited for - the two of them meet at the Ritz hotel, which may or may not be owned by Mohammad Al-Fayed. They safely drive a Cadillac coupe, though I didn't see anyone wearing seatbelts.
It's such an inane script that even the great Max Ophuls wouldn't have saved it. A great disappointment, though Rudolph's style is still there and recognizable. Actors get the attention they deserve, but their parts are so thin that such first-class competitors can't produce sparkles. Only Lara Flynn Boyle seems to have enjoyed herself playing such a superficial person. I'm bully for Christie, but her return to the screen in her second major performance this year since her portrayal of Gertrude in Hamlet (1996) has this natural born actress in a freewheeling overdrive a la Dunaway. As for Nolte, his physical appearance reminded me of the late Lee Marvin - for the nose - and of Kriss Kritofferson, who was so impressing in Trouble in Mind. Nolte did not have the carreer we thought he might have deserved after seeing him in Who'll Stop the Rain (1974) and Underfire (1983). Fifty years ago he would have matched with Howard Hawks' characters. Now he's just wandering through Walter Hill's actioners and Barbra Streisand's disastrous directorial efforts. Too bad. Jeffrey is played by the talented British actor Johnny Lee Miller, and I'm sure all Trainspotting fans will witness that gaving up dying his hair in blond is not a great idea.
I'll give Rudolph another chance, but since Altman's own films are now taken away from him, I'm afraid he'll have to direct more Demi Moore vehicles.
(C) Vincent Merlaud 1997
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