After Dark, My Sweet

"After Dark, My Sweet" is as pure an example of film noir as we've had in quite some time. That's meant as a compliment, but it may also be somewhat off-putting to some moviegoers.

The phrase "film noir" is French, meaning "dark film," a term adopted for movies in the '40s to exemplify the kind of downbeat mysteries that Hollywood began turning out at a feverish rate. Films like "The Maltese Falcon," "Double Indemnity" and "Out of the Past," about a down-and-out loser, usually a private detective, becoming involved with a femme fatale, who may not be what she seems, and lots of atmospheric trappings, usually in the form of window blinds and shadow and light.

Such films usually have downbeat endings and always keep you guessing about the characters and their motivations. These days variations on the theme seem to be pale imitations of the real thing and often come off as contrived.

But not "After Dark, My Sweet." This is the real thing from start to finish.

Jason Patric is an over-the-hill pug, an asylum escapee who killed a man in the boxing ring. He's hitchhiking, running from the asylum, his past and himself.

One day he wanders into a rundown bar outside Palm Springs and links up with a beautiful, acerbic, heavy-drinking woman, played by Rachel Ward.

Before he knows it, Patric is involved with Ward and former policeman Bruce Dern in a plot to kidnap a rich kid and demand big bucks for his return.

But Patric is nervous and takes off for a while, finding himself in the care of a compassionate doctor (George Dickerson) who may have his own reasons for wanting Patric around.

Eventually, Patric realizes he can't stop thinking about Ward and returns to her desert hacienda to participate in the kidnapping plot.

It isn't long, however, before he begins to suspect Ward and Dern of cooking up a double cross. And he may be right. Or . . . .

"After Dark, My Sweet" is a slow-moving melodrama that's just enough off-kilter to keep the audience guessing about what's really going on.

What makes it engrossing is our concern for Patric's plight. He's not a completely sympathetic character, but he is a hapless unfortunate who has stumbled into something he can't completely control, and we feel for that.

We also care about Ward, whose chain-smoking alcoholic is pathetic, yet enchanting. She's the kind of woman we'd like to see get her act together, despite our suspicion that she is manipulating Patric for her own purposes.

Like all good film noir efforts, "After Dark" is cynical and uncertain, unraveling its mystery and revealing its truths slowly and uneasily.

This one also benefits from excellent performances by the entire cast, but especially Patric, who is utterly convincing as an ex-fighter who's taken too many blows to the head — but who isn't as punch-drunk as he seems.

"After Dark, My Sweet" is rated R for violence and profanity and a sequence that includes graphic sex and nudity.