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| Jill Soloway, Writer and Director |
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| Juno Temple and Kathryn Hahn |
AFTERNOON DELIGHT was another one of those "hot tickets" in Park City during the Sundance Film Festival. A 9:45 pm show and my hopes were that it was going to be worth staying up late. With all this buzz about it, it was a sure thing, right? Well, a sure thing never is just that as I would soon find out. "Afternoon Delight" had quite the cast and quite the promise. It's premise was shaky, but still, when you're talking about relationships, the well of ideas is limitless. The theme of the movie was this: A sexually frustrated married couple with a kid decided to go to a strip club to spice up their relationship with another couple. The husbands buy a lap dance for the wives (huh?) and the main character gets "attached" to that lap dancing stripper. The wife then attempted to "save" the stripper by letting her move in and care for their child. All sorts of strange situations then occur pushing this wife to her limits. Like I said, a strange premise. Maybe I'm just a little removed from what's cool and what's hip, but doing a couples date night at a strip club and having my husband pay for a woman to give me a lap dance, just never entered my mind. (My birthday is coming up, so please, please know that if you were looking for ideas to buy me something, this would NOT be it!)
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| Juno Temple and Kathryn Hahn |
"Afternoon Delight" had quite the impressive cast with Juno Temple ("Killer Joe"), Josh Radnor ("Liberal Arts"), Jane Lynch ("Best In Show") and Kathryn Hahn, a fellow Northwestern grad. Writer and Director, Jill Soloway has an impressive resume as well with having written for 'United States of Tara,' and 'Six Feet Under' and has produced many familiar hit shows. Again, it seemed that all the ducks were in a row for a hit movie. As we were introduced to Rachel (Hahn) and her husband Jeff (Radnor), we knew immediately that there were issues regarding their
intimacy; not just physically, but emotionally as well. We got very small glimpses of Rachel's regrets of giving up a career to stay at home with her adorable little boy. We also peeked into her life and saw that she struggled with the ability to keep up with the facade of moms that surround her at her son's school. "Afternoon Delight" had potential, but the crass and rude humor that I would expect to occur in a teen flick just didn't cut it with this movie. I really don't want to see people sitting on the toilet and peeing. I also don't think making jokes about what you would have named your aborted baby is funny. Assuming that absolutely everyone has had an abortion as if it is an everyday occurrence was offensive. I also thought that the sexual portions of this movie were over the top and in your face. If there was a lull in the action, then they threw in a sex scene and attempted to show as much as possible without getting an X rating. It was tasteless. Hahn's character could have been a wife and mother that so many could have related to, but we never really got a chance to get to know her. Without any depth to her character we couldn't have empathy. We never really got to know her husband and why he reacted the way that he did toward Rachel. Again, no depth of character equals no emotion or caring. You have to care about the characters and be invested in the film. I wasn't.
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| Jane Lynch |
Overall, I wish I hadn't been able to get this "hot ticket." I am sure I would have filled my time with something much more meaningful like having dinner. I had expected so much more given the cast. I am unsure as to what drew them to these roles. "Afternoon Delight" was truly a disappointment.
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