Simply Perfect

The acting in this movie is really good.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

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?

elements of it really are cringe worthy, the name lucky Mann and the smarmy way Nick Nolte talks to his ladies above all. johnny lee miller is so hot, so hot/cold, so interesting I'd never seen him in anything before he looks kind of like an actor from the 40s only with real skin and that turns out to be remarkably hot. as Julie Christie says he is "young and beautiful". Julie Christie really is "a revelation" although in a couple of her scenes the choices do seem a bit extreme or the direction but she deserved a nomination or something. I mean the last shot of her is really well cringe worthy but when you think about actually it it makes sense. she feels nick and Lara are making the nursery together with the idea of having this baby together. she thinks this girl has given him what she did not, having duped him instead, so her despair makes sense. still ... the shot is like oh wow what is this in its wailing pouring ashes upon ones' head it seems to come out of nowhere and it lasts forever and it's pretty unpleasant viewing no two ways about it. in answer to the question what is johnny's problem with Lara well it does appear that he's into older women. what's puzzling is the problem he has with Julie Christie when she humiliates this guy he really hates and turns to him like let's do it and he's like no that was a turn off, you were too slutty with him, we are supposed to imagine he has concluded, basically. say what? she was hardly being slutty, her seductiveness was mocking when she says "perhaps another time", emasculating. she even takes the man's phallic symbol champagne bottle from him in case you didn't get it. I felt really cheated that Julie Christie didn't' get laid but I guess the idea is she was already impregnated years before and nick is now making' a baby of his own that she doesn't get to share and thus the rip in their union is healed. as for Lara and johnny, well, they get to be Young and beautiful and perhaps when Lara is older and johnny is a geezer he will want her more! in answer to the question what is this film about what the heck was it all of Alan Rudolph's movies pretty much are about the one and only about "once I'm married my wives own me" as mickey says in choose me "it's other people who pull you apart" he goes to extreme lengths to prove this rather like Stanley Kubrick going overboard to defend freedom of thought in a clockwork orange. anyway this one is a good one not disappointing because it's funny and kinda sweet and kinda sexy and it has that amazing Alan Rudolph style, the slow camera movements through which various objects pass on different paths, these gavotte like "spires of martinville" like polyphonic spacial relationships are explored so seductively. it was a tad too long. and yeah the sets were awesome. the score was really nice too with some particularly gorgeous haunting moments when that female solo voice reiterates the one note... also the girl who has the nonspeaking role of the daughter of nick and Julie is just gorgeous. Good Alan Rudolph movie. not like "mrs parker" which was one of the disappointing ones or "trixie" which was nauseating. . .

There's no doubt Julie Christie was one of the most unique personalities of the late sixties and early seventies. A remote beauty who was sexy and charming in Billy Liar and Darling, haunting and enigmatic in Don't Look Now and McCabe and Mrs. Miller and one of the few things worth remembering about Doctor Zhivago. Her notorious pickiness when it comes to choosing roles has served her well and she is one of the few stars from that time who has moved quite gracefully through a film career. Her resources as an actress allow the character of Phyllis Mann to come alive in a way that few could accomplish and the magic she creates is unforgetable. Laid back hipster Alan Rudolph's sexual roundelay has a lush look on top and a jazzy score below but it's Christie who sears the visuals with sadness, mystery, and wit. Nick Nolte's rugged charm serves him well throughout and when these two are alone together on screen, the art of film acting is proudly displayed. Watch the scene when a drunken Phyllis tries to rekindle their physical relationship and notice the body language. Note to filmmakers: Rudolph's genius is knowing when not to move the camera and in trusting his actors to do the work.The film seems ponderous and flat at first and Johnny Lee Miller and Lara Flynn Boyle are still learning their craft (their scenes do grate), but Afterglow is a cockeyed success for those with patience.

By toning down the performances and getting tight close-ups, Alan Rudolph was able to capture the subtle interactions between people. A well-written script painted portraits of people trying to cope with their lives even when they are not what the characters thought they would be. Just sit back and savor this little dish of a movie.