Afterglow

"A comedy of tears…"

1997 1h 54m EN

😐

5.9

MID

★5.9TMDB · 43

DramaRomance

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Lucky Mann is a builder equally handy at repairs and seduction. The latest housewife to succumb to his charms is Marianne, unhappily married to corporate exec Jeffrey. When Jeffrey becomes enraptured by Lucky’s wife Phyllis, the four get caught in a love quadrangle that reignites their marriages.

“A comedy of tears…”

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Cast

Nick Nolte
Lucky Mann
Julie Christie
Phyllis Hart
Lara Flynn Boyle
Marianne Byron
Jonny Lee Miller
Jeffrey Byron III
Jay Underwood
Donald Duncan
Genevieve Bissonnette
Cassie
Domini Blythe
Helene Pelletier
Yves Corbeil
Bernard Ornay

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alan Rudolph
Writers: Alan Rudolph
Languages: English, French
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

29 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, French.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alan Rudolph, shot by Toyomichi Kurita. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Mark Isham. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Suzy Elmiger shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Nick Nolte and Julie Christie and Lara Flynn Boyle carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

FACT

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "A comedy of tears…".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0118566 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alan Rudolph directs. Toyomichi Kurita behind the camera. Mark Isham scores. Suzy Elmiger cuts. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, French.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

129 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, French.
3Directed by Alan Rudolph, shot by Toyomichi Kurita. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
4Original score by Mark Isham. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
5Editor Suzy Elmiger shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Nick Nolte and Julie Christie and Lara Flynn Boyle carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "A comedy of tears…".
8IMDB entry: tt0118566 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 43 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography: Toyomichi Kurita
Original score: Mark Isham
Editing: Suzy Elmiger
Production design: François Séguin
Costume design: François Barbeau
Makeup / hair: Marie-France Cardinal
Sound: Lou Solakofski
Stunt coordinator: David McKeown
Runtime: 114 min · 1h 54m
Status: Released
Box office: $2,465,960
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Afterglow (1997)

Also by

Alan Rudolph

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CinemaSerf2025-02-23
★ 6/10
“Marianne” (Lara Flynn Boyle) is sexily awaiting the return home from work of her executive husband “Jeffrey” (Jonny Lee Miller) but he just mutters something about a jockstrap and shows her little interest. Exasperated, she also needs an handyman to do some household plumbing and so alights on “Lucky” (Nick Nolte). Now he is married to “Phyllis” (Julie Christie) but isn’t averse to playing away from home now and again and so, well what now ensues rather surprised me. Not because it’s very good, but because Julie Christie took part in it. For a film that’s about relationships, possessiveness and sex it’s a shockingly sterile exercise with JLM as wooden as picket fence and Nolte just not at all convincing as the sex magnet his aptly named character would have us believe. “Phyllis” is an erstwhile actress and is a classy woman too, so what she’d ever have seen in her scruffy philandering husband didn’t leap of the screen at me in the first place. The same could be said of the plausibility of the other marriage that’s unsurprisingly struggling here. Perhaps the scenario is supposed to engender empathy from those of us in marriages that have entered cruise control and that have no longer any flare in them, but I just couldn’t find anything about any of these people that I wanted to like, so I couldn’t really have cared less. I did quite like the house with all the gadgets (maybe not the blue lights) but the rest of this, save for some acerbic dialogue from Christie, just didn’t really impress, sorry.

Production companies