Rating: 
Summary: Polite And Diplomatic......
Review: .......is how I am going to review this as everyone else was when this came out. It certainly is a worthy film, very complex and truthful and there are some good scenes but it comes across as a stylish but rather dull piece.Julie Christie is very good though and it is a shame that her performance was ignored nationwide in the UK. It revolves around two unhappily married couples, a young one and a middle aged one. Or rather it revolves round the latter couple as they are more interesting and where the story really lies as Alan Rudolph makes it very clear. Having gotten pregnant by another man whilst making a film, Phyllis Mann has had to suffer the consequences. After her daughter found out the truth about her paternity she ran away and her parents followed in vain to find her. In the meanwhile Phyllis, who cannot bring herself to sleep with her husband allows Lucky Mann to have affairs which inevitably puts a strain on their marriage. In the meantime the very silly and irritating Marianne Byron wants a baby even though her nasty workaholic husband Jeffrey blatantly does not. He also has a tendancy to other women only unlike Lucky, he likes older women. So can you imagine what's going to happen when he meets the frustrated Phyllis and his wife mets the red hot-blooded Lucky? Course you can. Rudolph successfully makes us have no sympathy with the younger couple and get intrigued in the older couple's affair and the interplay between Nolte and Christie is terrific. Yet it moves so slowly and lacks that lucklustre needed at various points throughout the flick. As I said before, it is a mixed bag. The ending is excellent though.
Rating: 
Summary: Old Roses, Young Weeds
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: An intelligent movie about lust, love and finding each other
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Afterburn
Review: Christie and Boyle sink their teeth into great parts but this love rectangle unfolds too slowly to be that entertaining. Rudolph's attempts at screwball comedy are ill conceived, but his direction is good. Too bad his male characters do nothing but think with, uh, you know.
Rating:
Summary: Afterburn
Review: Christie and Boyle sink their teeth into great parts but this love rectangle unfolds too slowly to be that entertaining. Rudolph's attempts at screwball comedy are ill conceived, but his direction is good. Too bad his male characters do nothing but think with, uh, you know.
Rating: 
Summary: A bore
Review: Dull, predictable, and the perfect cure for insomnia, I saw this in a theater and thought it would never end. There is no need for you to make the same mistake at home. You have been warned.
Rating:
Summary: Another reason why Julie Christie should continue to perform
Review: 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).
Rating:
Summary: Just OK
Review: I have to subtract 2 stars just on the basis of having cast Nolte as a womanizer. That guy isn't aging well at all and he's just plain disgusting to watch. He's a total lech. The rest of the movie is all right...nothing special, but not terrible either.
Rating:
Summary: a warm feel good imaginative film
Review: i love the dielect between the characters and the whole stor
Rating:
Summary: Ahhh, Julie!
Review: I rented this video as I like the combination of Nick Nolte and and especially Julie Christie who we do not see much of these days. But this is a relaxing movie definitely an afterglow over a bottle of red wine. I thought the acting was good and the film had a relaxed feel about it but never boring. Overall if you wish to see a leisurely well acted film on perhaps a moonlit evening then this is for you. Julie Christie has never been this good since "Don't look now".
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