After Dark, My Sweet (1990)

In this adaptation of Jim Thompson's 1955 novella, the characters keep thrashing around on screen, as though something terribly important were going on. Jason Patric gives a good performance as Bill ''Kid'' Collins, a volatile, childlike drifter who falls into the clutches of a couple of desperate schemers (Rachel Ward and Bruce Dern). The three launch a kidnapping that's destined to fail, and Patric and Ward keep taunting each other. After Dark, My Sweet is cool and compelling for about 45 minutes, but it has a clinical, hothouse garishness that grows oppressive. What's really weighing the movie down is the ghost of Thompson himself. The late pulp novelist has acquired such a hoity-toity reputation that his grimy little melodrama has become fodder for an existential art film. C+