Alan Rudolph's Afterglow

* * * (out of 4)

Afterglow is the sort of film we don't see enough of these days. It doesn't even aspire to be very much - just a few fleeting moments in the lives of two frustrated couples who cross paths. Director Alan (Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle) Rudolph sets out to observe these people, their habits, their hangups and their desires. He allows his actors room to stretch out and breathe, to simply exist in their environment, which in this case happens to be the well kept apartments of upper middle class Montreal.

The couple which holds a deeper fascination is the older couple. These two have been around the block a few times, and believe me, they weren't born yesterday. They're wise to each others' habits. Former B-movie starlet Phyllis (Academy Award nominee Julie Christie, the portrait of sophisticated sangfroid) is well aware that her n’eer do well husband, “Lucky” Mann (Nick Nolte, Mother Night) is having one affair after another behind her back. She’s hard boiled, laconic, and though the pain shines through her eyes she has that tight little smile and the fierce, determined glow in her eyes of a go-getter that won’t say die. To hell with “Lucky,” she has her own life, and dreams of days gone by.

It’s simpler for “Lucky,” since he’s a man’s man. A rugged man’s man improves with age, and his wizened features have a lifetime behind them. He knows who and what he is and doesn’t apologize. Heck, he tries to have a good sense of humor about it. He and Phyllis have chemistry, all right – the chemistry of two lost souls who both love and hate each other, and their wordplay crackles in their daily interactions.

When their dog and pony show gets too tiring for him, he works his masculine wiles on younger women, like the bored, sexually frustrated housewife Marianne (Lara Flynn Boyle, Twin Peaks.) He’s in the midst of repairing her apartment when they fall for each other in one of his many transitory relationships, but something about this one case makes Phyllis raise an eyebrow. Before long, she’s playing Lucky’s game by wooing and winning Marianne’s boyfriend, an arrogant young businessman (Jonny Lee Miller, with a thick Canadian accent.)

The older characters are more in control of their lives, since their younger partners continually struggle to find what they want out of life. They haven’t had much experience, nor have they been deeply wounded. You can’t say that for Lucky, or, especially, for Phyllis. They’re both hiding or running away from deep emotional regrets and scars that haunt their interactions between each other and their new flings. They’re pretty good at wearing masks, though - putting on a front that everything is just fine. When Jeffrey tells Phyllis that she’s the most fascinating woman he’s ever met, she smirks and says, “I know.”

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