Afterglow

A mess--and without Julie Christie's terrific, Oscar-nominated performance as an aging B-movie star, I submit that it would be a completely unwatchable mess, a highway pileup of a motion picture. More fascinating than anything in the movie itself--which is about two unhappy couples (Christie and Nick Nolte play one, Lara Flynn Boyle and Jonny Lee Miller the other) who wind up swapping partners--is the way that Christie manages to take the same tortured, ludicrously stylized dialogue that sinks her co-stars and turn it into gold. Were writer/director Alan Rudolph's scripts for such terrific films as Choose Me and Trouble in Mind and The Moderns actually better than those for his more recent work, or has he simply forgotten how to cast his pictures? His conceits and dialogue are so precious that the actors have to hit just the right tone to make them work; half an octave too high or too low and the whole thing comes across as trite, overbaked piffle. The man should get on the horn to Keith Carradine and Genevieve Bujold, pronto. Not recommended. (M D'Angelo)[DVD Review--Oct. 7, 2003--Columbia TriStar, 119 min., R, $19.95, avail. Oct. 14--Making its debut on DVD, Alan Rudolph's 1997 Afterglow is not one of his best. Presented in an anamorphic widescreen release, the image is occasionally soft and sometimes grainy, but overall the transfer is decent, and the Dolby Digital surround sound is easily equal to the mostly conversational demands. Bottom line: Rudolph completists and Christie fans will want to consider this extra-less disc; others can pass.]