Product Details

• Actors: Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Jay Underwood
• Directors: Alan Rudolph
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: October 14, 2003
• Run Time: 119 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000BXMZ1
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #52,622 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Afterglow" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Right from the start there's a wink in Alan Rudolph's dry comedy of sad characters. This film, touted for its Oscar-nominated performance by Julie Christie, is a solid entry for fans of Rudolph's Choose Me and Love at Large. First we meet the amorous Mr. Fix-it, aptly named Lucky Mann (Nick Nolte). Lucky is a big teddy bear who finds joy in construction and womanizing. Nearly every sentence is a smooth entendre or a typical Rudolph witticism. This arrangement seems to be fine with his longtime wife Phyllis (Christie), an ex-B-movie actress who acts as if much of her life is still a bad movie. Lucky's latest client is a young housewife (Lara Flynn Boyle) who also has a muddle of a marriage: Marianne swoons for Lucky's attention, because her husband, Jeffrey (Jonny Lee Miller), has energy for his high-rise business career but little else. Soon Jeffrey espies sad and stunning Phyllis and is on the prowl, unaware that she is Lucky's wife.

Many filmmakers have made statements about the rarity of monogamy but Rudolph is one of the few who finds so much strength in fooling around. He has deep, long answers to why his characters are the way there are, and this leads to scenes that actors relish, even if they don't ring true. Certainly Christie has not had a part this juicy in years, and Nolte, warm and energetic, simply shines. Miller, usually the young ruffian in films such as Trainspotting, gives an intriguing slant to a stuffed shirt. Rudolph has never reached the complexity nor the mastery of his mentor Robert Altman, but he has created his own niche: the comedy of characters usually found in urban dramas. There are laughs in this movie that you simply won't find in the typical Hollywood comedy. Like Altman, he proves that being an independent voice is not about the methods of filmmaking, it's about talent. --Doug Thomas

Product Description

Nick Nolte Julie Christie Lara Flynn Boyle and Trainspotting's Jonny Lee Miller star in director Alan Rudolph's wry romance about a handyman who wreaks havoc and builds romance in two marriages. Desperate to have a baby Marianne hires Lucky Mann to remodel a nursery. There's just one problem: Marianne's not pregnant and her husband isn't interested in sex. So what's a handyman to do? Intimate intelligent reckless and romantic "you'll delight in this one and you'll leave in an AFTERGLOW of pleasure!" Gene Shalit Today NBC-TVSystem Requirements:Running Time: 119 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: COMEDY Rating: R UPC: 043396085602 Manufacturer No: 08560

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intelligent movie about lust, love and finding each other, January 17, 1999

By	[e-mail] (Henderson, Nevada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afterglow [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A slow, intelligent and witty film, Afterglow is perhaps one of the better testament about falling out of love and back. Julie Christie gives a moving performance as a washed-up actress looking back at her heydays and wondering where it all went. Nick Nolte playing her philandering husband certainly displays his devilish charm that makes him both irresistible in movies and in real life. But perhaps one of the most understated roles is that of Lara Flynn Boyle. She plays the dissatisfied housewife looking for a little sexual excitement that her husband (Johnny Miller) has failed to give her. She's quirky, sexy, and wonderful to watch. For anybody who wants to see a moving and wonderful love story, they should really see this film.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another reason why Julie Christie should continue to perform, April 26, 2002

By	Frank Rodasky (Pacific Northwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afterglow [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Here's Julie Christie more beautiful, more enchanting, sexier than she has been since her role in Doctor Zhivago thirty years ago. She's an ageless wonder, delicate and sweet while also being smart and tough. Her performance as Phyllis Mann, a washed up B-Movie actress is entrancing, so much so that when viewing the film, I found myself ignoring the other actors while she was on screen. I couldn't take my eyes from her for a moment, though that's no slander at her co-stars. Nick Nolte is as watchable and likable as ever as Christie's philandering husband. Lara Flynn Boyle and Johnny Lee Miller have never really been my cup of tea, but perform complex parts with admirable skill. They are a young couple with all the material possessions in the world but separated by an emotional iciness between them. Boyle wants a child while Miller does not, so she turns to handyman Nolte. Miller happens to meet Christie and becomes fascinated by her while she allows herself to be seduced as much out of revenge as curiosity. The film is stylishly directed by Alan Rudolph and I give special credit to cinematographer Toyomichi Kurita for his excellent camera work, though I envy him for getting to stare through his lens every day to see Julie Christie before him. A touching film with fine performances all around, with Christie the standout(yet again).

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Old Roses, Young Weeds, March 5, 2001

By	Mr. Cairene (Cairo, Egypt) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Afterglow [VHS] (VHS Tape)

A fading light that illuminates the day, when it's too late to change anything about it, is the Afterglow. In the gray city of Montreal, two couples prance in its dim daze, uttering writer/director, Alan Rudolph's highly stylized dialogue: Lucky (Nick Nolte) and Phyllis Mann (Julie Christie) have been married for over twenty years. He is a philandering fix-it man, she is wittily morose ex-B-movie actress. They have an arrangement about his philandering that goes back to a painful incident in their past, one that is clear in the present's Afterglow. More upscale, and younger, are the Byrons, Jeffrey and Marrianne, a miserably rich yuppie couple. He entertains his suicide fantasies by stepping out onto his high-rise office ledge, sticking his knee into the air, waiting for a strong wind to push him off. She is a semi-hysterical, insatiate housewife, who is building a baby room for a baby her husband promises they will never have.

The plot mechanics of what follows would be farcical if it weren't for the pace. In the yuppie's lavish house (similar to the one Al Pacino called "post-modernistic bull#*%^" in Heat), Lucky goes to build the frustated housewife nursery for the phantom infant. Given their respective marital status, an affair, especially in film with jazz dominating the soundtrack, is mandatory. By sheer coincidence, or by the writer's desire for contrast, Jeffrey and Marrianne meet. Suicidal he maybe, but as his well complemented secretary would attest, he does have an attraction, albeit non-sexual, to older women. This is their first exchange:

Phyllis: I noticed your wedding ring.

Jeffrey: Its removable.

Phyllis: Does your wife know that?

Jeffrey: If we find her, we'll tell her.

Rudolph is so fond of such rhythmical gesticulation of dialogue that instead of the above standing out, it could be a random selection from his script. The whole thing is written this way, hence defeating any dramatic aspirations the film might have had; if these people talk like this ALL the time, then what planet are they from?

This is that part where I'm supposed to say why I thought the picture is not what it might have been. It is true that the actors, with the exception of the Oscar nominated Christi, struggle to create anything special under the director's pretense; Miller is fun in role that is virtually opposite to his Sick Boy in Trainspotting, but the character is one note. Boyle brings nothing new to frivolity and neurosis. And Nolte is just Nolte. But if you were familiar with the films of Alan Rudolph you'd know that he hasn't failed here. Afterglow is, probably, exactly what he wanted it to be. A small scale drama with a slightly skewed sense of reality. He is the patron saint of the slightly off-key film (his underrated 1990 murder mystery Mortal Thoughts was realistic only because every other murder mystery was not). So Afterglow is no surprise, just another part of the man's repertoire. The only thing that might make Rudolph's oak-lined, smokey, booze drenched creation worth visiting is a jewel of performance by Julie Christi. She is able to sell Rudolph's silly non-jokes, as when she calls her husband Lucky Mann (which is his real name, ho ho), without letting on if she is loving, mocking, hurt or disgusted by him. She is the enigmatic, fascinating mystery the rest of the film only thinks it is.