Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

Afternoon Delight Blu-ray Movie Review

Where's the Starland Vocal Band when you really need them?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman February 20, 2014

1992’s Milk Money was a hie-larious comedy built on the premise of three young boys more or less innocently bringing home a prostitute to live in their suburban home with their widower father. An unlikely romance blossoms and everyone lives happily ever after in that ridiculously glossy way that only Hollywood provides. Replace the three boys with a bored housewife, while also extracting much of the comedy (not that Milk Money was ever very funny, either) and, not to put too fine a point on it, at least some of the happily ever after, and you have a fair approximation of the strange independent film Afternoon Delight, an occasionally winning but ultimately too tonally uneven outing that nonetheless took home the Directing Award at last year’s Sundance Festival and also attained the perhaps dubious honor of being named one of Tarantino’s Top 10 Movies of 2013. Afternoon Delight is at its core a depiction of a marriage stuck in a rut, which is certainly fertile material for a small scale film like this, but writer-director Jill Soloway (Six Feet Under, United States of Tara) adds odd adornments like a Jewish subtext that may give the film specificity but which ultimately adds no meaning to the tale. The film coasts on a certain amount of affability while at the same time never really working up any comedic momentum. In fact, one of the biggest things hobbling the story here is the rather sudden shift into soap operatic territory after a kind of fumfering (if I might call upon my own Yiddish heritage) approach that may not be laugh out loud funny, but which is at least generally amiable. Afternoon Delight ironically finally finds a bit of heft in its purely dramatic scenes, where an unhappy Silver Lake, California housewife finally has to come to terms with several decisions she’s made which end up having unforeseen consequences.

Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) is visiting her therapist Lenore (Jane Lynch), lamenting the fact that she really has nothing to complain about considering the trials of women in such places as Darfur, a lament which Soloway turns into a “joke” involving multiple rapes. This obviously is meant to indicate right off the bat how “edgy” Afternoon Delight wants to be, and yet it often only seems mildly provocative, at best, especially when one of the running gags in the film is that Rachel can’t ever get help because Lenore keeps wanting to vent about her life. It turns out that Rachel, despite seeming to have everything, is enduring a sexless marriage with her techie husband Jeff (Josh Radnor). She tries to rationalize it all to Lenore, saying every couple goes through protracted periods without intimate relations, an idea which Lenore shoots down without a second thought.

We’re also privy to some of Rachel’s outside activities, which include organizing an auction at her local “J” (Jewish Community Center, for you uninitiated). Rachel is surrounded by some frankly catty women who don’t seem especially supportive of each other, save for Stephanie (Jessica St. Clair), who divulges to Rachel that she spiced her love life up with her husband by visiting a strip club, after which they came home and engaged in furious coupling. Rachel decides to take a chance, and drags a surprised Jeff along on a double date to a local strip club with Stephanie and her husband. Rachel indulges in a “private dance” with a cute young worker named McKenna (Juno Temple), and seems simultaneously repulsed and fascinated by this overtly sexual contact.

For reasons which are hinted at but never explored fully enough to resonate, Rachel feels drawn toward McKenna and returns to the site of the club on several occasions, managing to “bump into” the girl at a nearby coffee truck. The two begin a halting friendship, and then in one of those maddening plot devices that too many films indulge in, McKenna sees her car about to be towed and madly gets all her belongings out of it before it’s repossessed. That leaves her with no place to go and a sidewalk full of accoutrements—and, again without much rationale, Rachel offers her the guest room in her tony Silver Lake mansion.

McKenna settles in as a confidante to Rachel (the two plan to develop a blog together about the “sex worker” industry), while McKenna also occasionally works as a nanny to Rachel’s adorable young son. Jeff is shocked to find McKenna at his home, but again the film never deals with any of this explicitly enough to really make much of a difference. Soloway continues to try to push the envelope in such sequences as Rachel accompanying McKenna on one of her “house calls” (if you catch my drift), but aside from a palpable sense of awkwardness, Afternoon Delight delivers far too few laughs and not enough drama in its first two acts.

Soloway then completely upends everything she’s been trying to achieve in an extremely problematic and overly hysterical gambit that sees Rachel getting plowed with her girlfriends while Jeff hosts a poker night with the husbands that is soon interrupted by a patently seductive McKenna. Within mere seconds, the film implodes in a series of recriminations, bad decisions and rather sloppy screenwriting that spills a host of unmotivated detritus across the screen. That leads to yet more awkwardness in what actually turns into a fitfully moving coda, as Rachel deals with being totally ostracized by her social circle and even more estranged from Jeff.

The major problem with Afternoon Delight is one of tone. Soloway doesn’t seem to know if she wants to make a distaff version of a kind of raucous frat house comedy, or a more introspective kitchen sink drama with elements of comedy dancing around the edges. The best thing about this film tends to be the generally good performances. Hahn creates a completely believable Rachel, a highly conflicted woman who doesn’t know what she really wants (or needs), and stumbles repeatedly in her attempts to find firm ground. The roles of Jeff and McKenna are somewhat underwritten, one note affairs, but Radnor and Temple work relative wonders with them.

Afternoon Delight is ultimately too contrived and even staid for its own good (this despite some relatively graphic sex scenes scattered throughout). Soloway would have done better to have made either a flat out potty mouthed comedy or a more restrained, nuanced dramatic treatment of this subject matter. Rachel and Jeff seem like interesting characters, but their story here is too rote to ever gain much traction.

Afternoon Delight Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Afternoon Delight is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. Despite being digitally shot in native HD, this is sometimes a shockingly bland looking film. Colors are anemic at best, save for a couple of brightly lit establishing shots of the lovely Silver Lake neighborhood. Cinematographer Jim Frohna either didn't have the time or expertise to adequately light even simple indoor coverage, and there are manifold instances where the actors' faces are literally obscured by shadow or darkness (watch when McKenna and Rachel enter Rachel's expansive home for the first time for a great example). Because of the lighting issues, fine detail is somewhat mitigated, though it pops to reasonably good levels in a few exterior close-ups. The overall appearance of Afternoon Delight is surprisingly soft, a tendency that may be exacerbated by the lighting issues.

Afternoon Delight Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Afternoon Delight's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix really only kicks into high gear when the film utilizes its source cues, or in the one scene in the strip bar, where both music and crowd noises populate the surrounds. Otherwise, this is a very quiet, dialogue driven film that relegates activity to the front channels. Fidelity is fine here, with no issues of any kind to mention.

Afternoon Delight Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Jill Soloway and Kathryn Hahn. Hahn seems to be further away from the microphone and is hard to hear at times in this okay but not overly compelling commentary. Shame on Soloway for not knowing who the soundtrack artist is when Hahn asks her who is performing under the opening credits. Soloway does talk about some of the improvisatory nature that the actors brought to the project.


• Making Afternoon Delight (1080p; 9:17) is a typical EPK featurette with interviews and behind the scenes footage.


• The Gustavo House (1080p; 1:47) profiles the architect Gustavo Gubel and the house that was utilized in the film.


• Deleted Scenes (1080p; 13:44)


• Featurettes (1080p; 7:34) is comprised of five shorts focusing on various aspects in the film, like Juno Temple getting lessons in exotic dancing.


• Trailer (1080p; 2:10)

Afternoon Delight Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Good performances help to elevate some pedestrian writing and directing (despite that Sundance accolade). Unfortunately, Soloway follows in the footsteps of her lead character by not seeming to know what she wants to accomplish. Fans of the actors (especially Temple) may want to check this out in any case, even without overwhelmingly superb technical merits.