After Dark, My Sweet is one of my favorite Thompson books, maybe right there after Savage Night, Hell of a Woman and The Getaway. I liked The Grifters, but it's more towards the middle of my Thompson reads. As movies, The Grifters, was far superior, and captured the book brilliantly. After Dark, My Sweet mostly followed the book (except for blowing the ending), but to me seemed to be missing something. I'm not sure what exactly. Jason Patric seemed like a poor choice for Kid Collins, but even with that it still felt wrong. The movie left me disappointed.
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A young Marlon Brando would have been the ideal Kid Collins, but as they weren't making films of Thompson's books when Brando was a lad, I thought Patric brought as much of that energy to the film as any actor could have. As much as I admire Casey Affleck, I still think After Dark My Sweet is the best Thompson adaptation yet. Initially I thought both Rachel Ward & Bruce Dern were odd choices, but they did a wonderful job in those roles. Really brought the story alive to me. I enjoyed The Grifters, too, but the dark quality brought to the desert light in ADMS pushes it ahead in the race in my opinion.
Patrick King
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