DVD Review – Afternoon Delight (2013)

Written and directed by ‘Six Feet Under‘ writer Jill Soloway, Afternoon Delight follows the relationship between Rachel (Kathryn Hahn) and Jeff (Josh Radnor). Their relationship is a little lacklustre, they’d much rather live their lives through social networks and even their sex life has dried up. In attempt to kick-start their relationship they go to a strip club, Rachel meets 19 year old stripper McKenna (Juno Temple), and the carefree attitude of McKenna captures Rachel’s curiosity.

Rachel returns to the scene of the crime in an attempt to find out more about McKenna. After sharing a coffee together things escalate quickly when McKenna is suddenly made homeless and Rachel moves her into the family home, introducing her to friends and family as the new nanny! Nothing can go wrong, right?

Afternoon Delight is described a comedy drama, unfortunately it seems to be 80% drama, which buries the mere 20% of comedy. What comedy there is largely comes from the smart mouth of Rachel, her thoughts on the world, her continual references to current social media and her ability to cope when giving back to the community through volunteering.

Juno Temple does a great job as McKenna, the sober living stripper who turns a lot of heads. Her character progression is pretty obvious – never move a stripper into the home of a struggling marriage! Her influence on both halves of the relationship is interesting.

‘How I Met Your Mother‘ star Josh Radnor seems to phone in this performance, he seems to spend most of the film in a fog. His character Jeff is a somewhat accomplished Apps salesman (see, it’s current!), but most of the ideas his wife suggests seem to bore him, all he wants to do is put Percy in the playpen.

Overall Afternoon Delight is mildly entertaining, it’s not really a comedy and there’s no laugh out loud moments. Heck, it seems to be a theme of some indie comedies that they always end up with women crying. I advise against purchasing but suggest waiting and watch the film streaming off Netflix, Amazon etc. instead.

2/5