Afternoon Delight
Afternoon Delight is the directorial debut from writer/producer Jill Soloway (Six Feet Under, Grey’s Anatomy) that won her the Best Director award at the Sundance Film Festival.
Starring Kathryn Hahn (The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, We’re The Millers), Juno Temple (Atonement, Killer Joe) and Josh Radnor (How I Met Your Mother)— Afternoon Delight is a dry comedic look at the tension within a sexless marriage and how the dynamics change when a not-so welcome visitor stays for a few weeks.
Trappins of a succesful life
Despite the trappings of a seemingly successful life, Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) has lost all sense of self, purpose and libido. To spice up her marriage, she and her husband (Josh Radnor) visit a strip club where they meet mesmeric sex worker McKenna (Juno Temple). Hoping to save McKenna, Rachel takes her home as a live-in nanny. Unsurprisingly, havoc ensues with comic-tragic results within Rachel’s family and her circle of friends.
The narrative of Afternoon Delight is— to a degree— a fascinating one. It’s potential is great at the beginning, when the dynamics of the story are being formed. But from the moment Rachel finds out McKenna is a prostitute, the story coasts along to an anti-climatic finale.
What does work in this film is it’s raw and honest approach to modern marriages. At the start, Rachel is seemingly contempt to live her modern day lifestyle and enjoy the income her app developing husband brings home. But routine frustrates the mother of one and she becomes restless and bored.
Hands of the awkward curiosity
Kathryn Hahn brings a heir of real sensibility to Rachel’s pain. We connect and believe her vulnerability will become the end of her. With this sensitivity being the overall arc for the film, director Soloway creates a mood throughout that plays into the hands of the awkward curiosity within Rachel’s imagination.
This builds nicely into the climax of the film, where two events; Rachel and her friends talking marriage and mothership whilst plastered on wine and Jeff and his buddies poker night taking a chaotic twist when McKenna joins in.
Thematically, it makes sense— but it doesn’t play out as rhythmically as hoped. The tone is all wrong and leads to a mistreatment of McKenna within the screenplay— who seems to become a hindrance rather than a key figure in the culmination of the story.
Afternoon Delight is a well put together narrative that features some dry comedic moments, but it’s conclusion leaves you feeling rather unmotivated.
Afternoon Delight is available on DVD and Blu-ray on 12th May 2014.
