Afterglow Movie Review

This featherweight variation on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? is only partly redeemed by the fact that the always-good Nick Nolte and the ever-charismatic Julie Christie are in it. Lara Flynn Boyle's character is so vapid, it sounds as if she were modeled after a single blind date in Hell. As for Jonny Lee Miller, I can take him as a trainspotter, as a hacker, but not as some romance-starved fop worshipping at the altar of La Christie and limping around in a cast he got in a hokey suicide bid. Afterglow goes on for hours, and at the end, just when you're crossing every finger and toe that the soundtrack doesn't break into some sappy love song, Tom Waits starts to sing “Somewhere"—AAARGH!!

1997 (R) 113m/C Nick Nolte, Julie Christie, Lara Flynn Boyle, Jonny Lee Miller, Jay Underwood, Domini Blythe; D: Alan Rudolph; W: Alan Rudolph; C: Toy-omichi Kurita; M: Mark Isham. Independent Spirit Awards ‘98: Best Actress (Christie); New York Film Critics Awards ‘97: Best Actress (Christie); National Society of Film Critics Awards ‘97: Best Actress (Christie); Nominations: Academy Awards ‘97: Best Actress (Christie). VHS, Closed Caption