Twenty five years after its release, Martin Scorsese’s 1985 black comedy/thriller ‘After Hours’ remains one of the director’s most (if not, his most) underrated feature. The narrative follows the adventures of Paul Hackett (brilliantly played by Griffin Dunne): an ordinary New York City worker trying to get home after becoming entangled in a series of weird events in the early hours of the morning. In the end, Scorsese gives us a little gem, one that still shines two and a half decades on.
In many respects, this is a one-man narrative. Scorsese posits Hackett at the centre of every scenario on-screen, as a fish out of water, a man alien to each bizarre encounter he is faced with. Dunne conveys an overwhelming sense of harmlessness in his role; Hackett is fiercely bitch slapped from one travesty to another. His awkwardness in each conundrum, however, gains sympathy. Maybe it’s Dunne’s youthful looks, but Hackett comes across as naïve and plain, a well-intentioned man caught up in the actions of ill-intentioned people. It’s not as if he wishes to see dead women, or that he craves being chased by vigilante mobs, or that he wants to listen to moping bartenders, or even that he wants to combat annoyed cab drivers. All Hackett wants and needs is sleep. The obstacles the man has to overcome in order to find a bed become the driving force behind the film’s comic relief. Solid supporting performances from Rosanna Arquette, John Heard, Tommy Chong, Cheech Marin and Catherine O’Hara all work well to assist – and complicate – this narrative about a man’s struggle to get home. Another standout feature about this film is the fact that it tells a complex story within a reasonably short time frame: a little over 90 minutes. Like the film’s shady mise en scene, the amount of time Scorsese takes to tell this story is interesting to consider. In the end, we are given an effective film that details a perplexing story in cool cinematography and brief length.
Without doubt, Scorsese’s film is peculiar. The events that take place in the film are disjointed and chaotic, bordering on absurd. It is, however, Scorsese’s unusual fusion of dark cityscape and quirky humour that renders most different and distinct in his work. Maybe it’s the film’s offbeat visual style and genre mixing that consistently evades mainstream audiences. Who knows?
(3.5/5)
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