Rudolf's best two films were quirky comedies: Choose Me (1984) and Love at Large (1989). Elsewhere, he's made a couple of intriguing films about literary figures, Ernest Hemingway in The Moderns (1988) and Dorothy Parker in Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle (1994). Actors like to work with Rudolf because, like Altman, who routinely produces Rudolf's films, Rudolf is a collaborator. He's particularly good with women. Jennifer Jason Leigh was wonderful in Mrs. Parker, as were Genevieve Bujold, Lesley Ann Warren and Rae Dawn Chong in Choose Me and Anne Archer in Love at Large. In his current release, Afterglow, Rudolf has supervised an Oscar-nominated performance by the estimable Julie Christie. Good for him. But Christie's work is about the only reason you might want to invest in Rudolf this go round.

Afterglow is a tale of two marriages. Phyllis (Christie) and Lucky (Nick Nolte) Mann have been married for a quarter century, but the union has been in trouble for some time. Phyllis is a former B-movie actress who now spends her days in melancholic lethargy, watching her old films and recalling largely how bad they were. Lucky has a lot more energy. He calls himself a contractor, but he appears to be little more than a handyman. He's got lots of work, most of which comes less from his skill under the sink than under the sheets with the lonely women who hire him. Late-twentysomethings Marianne (Lara Flynn Boyle) and Jeffrey (Jonny Lee Miller) Byron, meanwhile, aren't doing much better. Jeffrey is a workaholic investment banker who seems oblivious to his wife's considerable charms. Marianne loves her husband, or so she proclaims, but she seems obsessed with her biological clock. Enter Lucky to build a nursery for the baby Marianne has yet to conceive. And let nature take its course.

The Afterglow on Nick Nolte's face doesn't have anything to do with his wife, Julie Christie.

Rudolf's thesis here seems to be that love is contagious. Lucky and Phyllis had a violent argument the better part of a decade ago, and things haven't been right since. Among the losses was their beloved daughter, from whom they are now estranged. Lucky still carries a torch for his wife, but she's too depressed to respond. She tolerates what he does with his clients because it relieves her from any sexual responsibility. We haven't a clue what Jeffrey's problem is. He seems more interested in older women. A mother fixation? But he's almost completely unlikable. Then Lucky and Marianne start making whoopee, and the heat gets turned up for everybody in the film. What's different is that Lucky finds himself actually falling for Marianne, and that switchblades Phyllis out of her long stupor. Boffing is one thing; caring is quite another. It's not quite clear who gets Jeffrey's attention, but eventually he's spying on his spouse with the same intensity as Phyllis. You never know what you've got until it's gone, I guess.