After Hours Review

After hours directed by Martin Scorsese is about an office worker called Paul Hackett who we follow throughout the entire film and he is seemingly unsatisfied with his personal and professional life as he seems to be stuck in a tedious cycle but this all changes after he meets a woman named Marcy in a cafe in Manhattan and hoping to break free of this cycle decides to take a taxi to a flat where Marcy is staying.During the taxi ride he loses $20 dollars causing him to be unable to pay for the ride this event sets the tone for the strange night Paul is about to have as he finds himself in a series inconvenient,dream like and dangerous circumstances. Throughout the night Paul's unfortunate circumstances seem to become more and more dangerous as he tries to return to his home through a number of desperate attempts. Finally at the end of the film Paul arrives back to his office just in time for work the next day.This dark comedy is not only about the nightmare night of Paul Hackett but also shows New York as a place where everyone one is focused on themselves and have no time for other people, this is shown in a number of the bizarre characters and Paul’s interactions with them as throughout the film in most of his encounters with these characters the dialogue ends up shifting towards that characters problems.This amplifies this idea of New York being a lonely place where most people are so focused on success that they forget about other people's problems even if they are more urgent than there own which is definitely true in the case of this film and are always worrying about themselves and their problems.After hours has a cyclical structure as we end in the office room that we started in this could symbolize this loop Paul goes through daily and it shows that by the end of the film nothing has really changed for him as he goes back to his normal mundane routine.The nightmarish setting of After hours makes the audience feel a sense of unease as the strange events unfold, throughout the film this feeling progresses as we are introduced to these unusual characters.This feeling of unease is also built upon by the amounting pressure throughout the film as Paul's circumstances become more and more dangerous and as Paul begins to fear for his life.This tense atmosphere builds and builds until we arrive back at Paul's workplace where all of a sudden the audience feels a sense of familiarity with the setting and so does Paul as we have seen this setting at the beginning but we are unable to see this gate the same way as Paul has been changed by the this experience and he can attempt to return to his prior cycle but knows the audience and Paul himself it will never be the same and that he is a changed man after the surreal night.