Starring Julie Christie, Nick Nolte, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Jonny Lee Miller Directed by Alan Rudolph Rated R, with profanity, nudity, sex Running time 113 minutes Jack gives this film a rating of 6 out of 10

By Jack Garner
Democrat and Chronicle

(Feb. 6, 1998) -- Like Tiffany jewels in a Woolworth setting, talented veterans Julie Christie and Nick Nolte outshine a mediocre Afterglow.

They play Lucky and Phyllis Mann, a Montreal couple whose marriage is a sham. They live together and are outwardly civil, but haven't had sex in years. A terrible family secret separates them.

Lucky is a handyman whose talents go beyond house repairs -- his greatest skill seems to be pleasing many of the lonely women who hire him.

Phyllis, a former B-movie queen, knows about Lucky's "outlet" and lets him do his thing. She spends most of her days gazing glassy-eyed at her old junk movies on television.

Lucky gets a job remodeling a high-class apartment for Jeffrey and Marianne Byron (Jonny Lee Miller and Lara Flynn Boyle), another couple with major marital problems.

Marianne is a bored housewife, eager to have a child, but her cocky, uncaring husband has no interest beyond his headlong rush up the corporate ladder.

When the handyman walks through Marianne's door, he's the perfect answer to her raging hormones; it's her "Lucky" day. But then, in a coincidence too crazy to believe, Jeffrey also becomes involved with Phyllis. Thus, the two couples mix-and-match in two conflicting, May-September romances.

If that sounds like a great set-up for a comedy, I agree. And when the romances collapse all over each other in the crazed finale -- as we know they must -- you'll wish you could guffaw.

Unfortunately, writer-director Alan Rudolph had other ideas. His version of Afterglow is far too solemn and serious. There's a perceptive comedy dying to break out of this stuffed-shirt movie.

Afterglow is the latest exploration of romantic complications from Rudolph, an art-house favorite (and former Robert Altman protege) whose films typically ooze high style and exquisite design, but aren't consistent as narratives.

(His earlier works include The Moderns, Equinox, Mrs. Parker and the Inner Circle, Trouble in Mind, and his best film, Choose Me.)

Rudolph's chief accomplishment here is the casting of Christie and Nolte, who create fabulous chemistry.

Christie, a superstar of the 1960s and '70s, has been shamefully under-used in the movies of the past 20 years. She still looks great -- and is one of the best actors of her generation.

It's a tribute to Christie's talent that we buy her in Afterglow as a fading B-movie actress, even though she's a luminous A-movie star.

Nolte is nearly as good as her sexy but frustrated husband, hiding his considerable vulnerability under lion-like locks and a carefree manner.

Any afterglow you feel after this film emanates from these two stars.