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Afternoon Delight Movie Review Summary

Actors: Kathryn Hahn, Link Ruiz, Cesar Garcia

Detailed plot synopsis reviews of Afternoon Delight


This is the story of Rachel - a workless mom in the wealthy part of Los Angeles - who, after getting a lapdance from a stripper - McKenna - invites her to stay at her home, which leads to a crisis in the wealthy neighbourhood. Rachel is a 40 something stay-home mom, whose husband is an app developer, and since he makes a lot of money, she does not need to work. She has a son, the 5-year-old Logan, but she is unable to find anything worthwhile in her life. She had no sex for six monthts by now, and she is frustrated.
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Rachel also has a friend Stephanie, who too lives the glamourous lifestyle of workless housewifes who has nothing else to do, but to make organic sandwitches for the homeless and putting it on twitter or facebook. This kind of life seems only to bother Rachel, not the other women in this circle.
So one day, after listening to Stephanie's advice, Rachel and Stepanie venture out with their husbands to a local stripclub, to get in the mood.
Rachel gets a lapdance from a young stripper - McKenna - but it seems to lead to the opposite direction. She throws up, so killing the mood in the process.
The next day she gets out to lurk around the strip club to find the young stripper girl, and eventually finds her. They start to talk. It turns out that she is 19 years old and when her car is towed, Rachel invites her to her home to stay.
McKenna fits in almost immediately, while Rachel tells her wealthy frinds that she is the nanny. Only Stephanie gets to know the truth when McKenna tells them, she is a sexworker.
Meanwhile Rachel's husband is kind of awkward around McKenna, but since he is only halfway in this relationship - because it seems, he just want to hide instead of facing the truth - he makes almost no trouble at all.
Rachel starts a blog about the fact that McKenna is a sexworker and she is stunned by the honesty and candid manner how the young girl talks about her customers and the way she sees herself as a sexworker.
So after this conversation Rachel tries to have sex with her husband but it just is the most awkward, forced sex ever, and they are both aware that there was no spark in it whatsoever.
So now Rachel is more frusrated than ever, while it seems that the whole word is against her, and she has to take part in organizing some other workless-ladies-have-fun-with-children-and-wine kind of happening. And she just feels under the weather and maybe a bit jelaous of McKenna.
And then the young stripper girl offers her a massage of the feet, and there is way more sexual tension in that than the actual sex she had with her hubby before. So obviously Rachel decides to run. She cannot take it, she is ashamed of herself.
Then McKenna goes out to one of her clients, and Rachel takes her there. Then there is a very frustrated dinner, and the children's party the next day.
Since Rachel could not organize the hotdogs, she is stuck with Kosher Amanda (one of the ladies who kind of stuck out for being allegedly extra jewish) and she escapes. She goes home, and goes out with McKenna to see a client who likes it when someone watches him having sex. While the two women are doing this, the man (the husbands) are jamming and smoking weed after surfing in the ocean.
When Rachel gets home, her looks and bewilderment acts as a turn-on for her husband and they have another awkward sexual intercourse.
The next morning Rachel oversleeps and wakes up to a lot of people having brunch in their garden. One of the ladies asks McKenna to babysit her girls that night and she says yes. This acts as the last straw for Rachel, who asks her husband to tell McKenna that they found someone else, so she is free.
This night the ladies go out to visit a wine tasting place, while the men are playing poker in Rachel's home. McKenna crashes the poker night and eventually sleeps with the husband of the lady who asked her to babysit her children. That ends up in a very thight upper lip kind of scandal, after which Rachel ends up being a pariah. But while the poker party is on, the ladies get drunk, especially Rachel, who brags about her abortion, and a freshman year date-rape that lead to that, while Stepanie announces that she is pregnant. Rachel also starts speaking foul of Amanda, but her friends decide it is enough. And they take her home. There they see the adultery.
Everything falls apart. Rachel's husband leaves, McKenna leaves, and the shrink Rachel goes to have therapy admits that she took her lesbian partner for granted, and for that she left her. That is the first evidence of her being a human, by the way. She is the manifestation of the lifestyle where real human emotions are inappropriate.
So, Rachel sets out to visit her husband who moved out, and they get back together, realizing that the blind love is gone, but they see each other now, and there is still love, just different.
Best part of story, including ending: It is a compelling tale of how different people view life and what is considered appropriate and what is not. Also the way how such delicate and painful topics as an abortion, prostitution or a date-rape can be worked into a movie and be treated with dignity and without moralizing.

Best scene in story: I liked the scene in the wine tasting place. The whole thing is shaking, it is like a half-drunk person. Kind of feels like I'm being there. And the half hidden pain, the self-hatred the wish to turn a blind eye and hide is truly amazing. It feels more real than the rest of the movie (although the rest is believeable too) and it bites.

Opinion about the main character: Rachel cannot seem to accept that there can be a worldview different from hers, which also has a right to be. She wants to save McKenna without asking her whether she wants it or not. It kind of feels as if she wanted to treat McKenna as the baby she aborted when she was a freshman in college.

The review of this Movie prepared by Angela Szilagyi a Level 1 Blue Jay scholar

Script Analysis of Afternoon Delight

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Plot & Themes

Time/era of movie:    -   2000's+ (present) Job/Profession/Poverty Story?    -   Yes Job:    -   stripper/porno maker

Main Character

Identity:    -   Female Profession/status:    -   homemaker/wife Age:    -   40's-50's Ethnicity/Nationality    -   White American

Setting

United States    -   Yes The US:    -   California City?    -   Yes City:    -   wealthy

Writing Style

Accounts of torture and death?    -   no torture/death Sex/nudity in movie?    -   Yes What kind of sex:    -   kissing    -   licking    -   actual description of sex    -   seeing breasts    -   seeing nude female butt Any profanity?    -   Occasional swearing

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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s).
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