In a desolate stretch of farm country, a young couple attempts to leave their complicated past behind in hopes of starting a new life. Andrew and Claire find themselves far from their roots. They move into an old schoolhouse that sits on the edge of a farm inhabited by an elderly widow and her blind niece, Maria. While the local media report on an approaching solar eclipse, the arrival of Andrew and Claire sets off an elusive chain of events that will alter the lives of everyone around them. As
their relationship deteriorates under the pressure of their isolation, Claire withdraws and develops an unsettling interest in Maria. And when painful memories return to haunt her, her only refuge becomes a sympathetic bid for solace she places in someone from her past. As tension builds across the countryside, a late-summer thunderstorm and the arrival of the eclipse become a catalyst for the characters to confront their darkest truths. It is not until a pale afterlight descends upon the farm in the wake of the eclipse that our characters find themselves-and their lives-changed forever. -- (C) Official Site
It's hard to embrace this glacially paced, symbolism-heavy film's elusive - when it's not being elliptical - story about a city couple's escape to rural life.
Afterlight proceeds without much discernible plot or character development, its objects and places exuding more backstory than its people, though Rip Torn as the father of the sole male protagonist lends a certain woodsy authenticity.
Mournfully lowing cows punch up the drama on cue, but it's only when we hear Rip Torn's whiskey-and-Camels voice, emanating from a mysterious relative of the young couple, that any of this seems the slightest bit real.
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