Review of After Hours (1985) by Christina G — 05 Aug 2007

This is pretty meandering and dense for 97 minutes. I found myself bored at times and drifting into love-hate: a story like this with a good cast and director is bound to have moments of brilliance, but the end is long in coming, and it is difficult at first glance to understand why exactly the protagonist feels trapped (money, job) or what his inability to get back from his wild night might symbolize.

In sum, Sturges-esque but not snappy, bleak, and with great moments. Reminiscent of Wilder (The Apartment) at times, whether or not there is a literal homage (see one of the culminating scenes, where the protag closes out a bar dancing; see also the final scene)--but again, there's a lot of bleak interspersed with the snappy.

There is toward the end a fantastic cameo by Catherine O'Hara, which might be worth waiting around for even so.