1980s weren’t very kind to Martin Scorsese. After Raging Bull, and with possible exception of The Last Temptation of Christ (which got memory-holed in some countries because of religious controversies), his work failed to reach the same quality and impact like in time when he had been giant of New Hollywood. This includes his 1985 black comedy After Hours.
Protagonist, played by Griffin Dunne, is Paul Hackett, ordinary New York man who makes end meet as computer expert in large office. Brief escape from monotony of his drone-like existence is offered when he meets beautiful young woman named Marcy Franklin (played by Rosanna Arquette) in a diner and sets up a late night date in the apartment she shares with eccentric sculptress Kiki Bridges (played by Linda Fiorentino). Things start to go wrong even during his travel to SoHo district and, after some spent with Marcy, he suddenly finds her too unusual for his taste and decides to return home. This, however, turns out to be almost impossible endeavour because strange circumstances, coincidences and misunderstandings conspire to make him spend almost entire night in SoHo, where he meets all kinds of unusual and increasingly sinister characters, witnesses suicide and murder and ultimately has to run for his life from the lynch mob.
Film was based on the script by Joseph Minion, young writer who based on his student assignment at Columbia Film School (given by Serbian/Yugoslav director Dušan Makavejev). Scorsese entered the project almost by accident, during the pause caused by endless delays of The Last Temptation of Christ. Despite being made with relatively low budget and in short period of time, it still displays great directorial skill by Scorsese. Pace is very good and Scorsese manages to keep the film short, yet the plot and characters don’t suffer because of it. This might be explained in the way Scorsese found a lot of common with Paul Hackett; just like the protagonist failing to get home he had been constantly hampered in his effort to start making The Last Temptation. Scorsese was aided a lot by famed German cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, with whom he would later collaborate on many of his great hits. Howard Shore’s music, on the other hand, isn’t that memorable and it is less efficient than the rest soundtracks which includes pop songs, including “Is There All There Is?” by Peggy Lee, performed near end where it works as sarcastic commentary at one of the scenes.
Scorsese also had good fortune at having very diverse but talented cast with some actors and actresses making good impression despite relatively small roles. Dunne, better known as producer and director than actor, is very good in the role of an average person audience would root for despite motives that get him into trouble not being particularly noble. Arquette as young and immensely attractive woman is quite memorable, just as future neo-noirish femme fatale Linda Fiorentino in one of her early roles. The most memorable roles belong to women, many of whose characters help or promise to help protagonist only to get him into more trouble. Some of the critics and scholars were interpreting After Hours as some sort of commentary of the male’s fear of castration, with only few (and even fewer today) interpreting in the context of social divisions of 1980s New York between “square” yuppies like the protagonists and “hip” artistic types he encounters during his SoHo adventure. After Hours (for which Scorsese won Best Director Award at Cannes Film Festival) is very good film, but at times seems more like an exercise in style than genuine story. There is humour, but it is usually of the very dark variety, and the ironic ending would look too bleak to those who expect conventional sort of Hollywood comedy.
RATING: 7/10 (++)
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