Afternoon Delight - Kathryn Hahn shines in leading role

Having played a supporting role in big screen comedies, including Step Brothers, We’re The Millers and Wanderlust, with Afternoon Delight the immensely talented Kathryn Hahn finally gets the chance to show what she can do in a lead role, and she doesn’t disappoint.

Hahn plays Rachel, a housewife and mother who, finding many aspects of her life with her husband Jeff (Josh Radnor) have gone stale, decides to visit a strip club with a group of friends. After a dalliance with lapdancer McKenna (Juno Temple), she engineers a subsequent meeting with her and ends up inviting her to live in the family’s spare room. She wastes little time in inviting McKenna to social engagements and asking her to babysit, whilst trying to lead her away from her life as a stripper and sex worker.

Whilst it starts out comedic in tone, writer-director Jill Soloway slowly takes things down a darker route as Rachel and McKenna’s very different lifestyles begin to cause friction between them. Rachel finds herself in situations she hadn’t prepared for and as the tension increases, it all comes to a head on one drunken evening. It’s an arresting scene, cross-cutting between a baby shower where an inebriated Rachel has a minor meltdown and a poker night between Jeff and his friends that McKenna gate-crashes.

The fallout from the night doesn’t always ring true but Hahn never fails to command attention. She reveals dramatic depths that I’ve never seen her demonstrate in her more comedic roles. British actress Juno Temple continues her streak of appearing in interesting American indie films and there’s strong support across the cast, including Bridemaid’s writer Annie Mumolo.