After Dark, My Sweet (1990) — “Talk To A Mirror”
Follow-up to the prior article:
A different interpretation of this film became noticeable recently. Spoilers ahead.
To cut right to the chase, the first part of the theory is that “Kid Collins” is not really our main character here. He’s assuming that identity, and probably is actually “ol’ crazy” Jack Billingsley. Notice when Faye introduces herself she refers to him as a “man without a name”, and then after he hesitantly states he’s Kevin Collins she says “it’s your story so stick with it”. As if the entire movie is his fantasy/delusion, which is the second part of the theory. Call it a dream, or a Jacob’s Ladder type death vision. It’s hard to say, but it really seems like Kid is constructing the entire story while also experiencing it. This may be why he seems to know what’s coming or is steering the plot even to his detriment. Let’s dive in.
At the beginning, Kid is walking for a while and decides to enter a bar. The sound of a baby crying could symbolize that he’s being born into this fictional world. Once inside the bar with Bert and Faye, Kid truly seems to be talking to himself. Bert totally ignores him, and it takes Faye a moment to respond, but she’s really talking mostly to Bert. Also a fascinating point I noticed — Bert is wearing a gold watch in this scene. Later, Kid is wearing a gold watch when he’s acting as Rogers at the kidnapping scene. Going back to the “Uncle Bud is Bert” theory, that would explain why Kid has that watch (Bud/Bert gave it to him for the scheme). Here we see the first “flash edit” when Kid goes from punching Bert to suddenly walking down the road. What is important is that Faye’s attitude suddenly changes; she goes from making fun of Kid to going out of her way to help him. As if it’s a different dream/fantasy suddenly.
Later on in the Mexican restaurant, Kid and Faye enter a dance floor which sort of resembles a boxing ring. Especially the way kid enters, but this time he’s out of his element. Notice that Faye hardly acknowledges or speaks to Bud at all. When she leaves to go to the restroom she only says “talk to a mirror”. Double meaning, suggesting that Kid talking to Bud is actually Kid talking to himself. The conversation they have later about the kidnapping plan is similar, in that Faye basically ignores Bud completely. It’s almost as if Kid and Faye are just sitting in silence until she pours him more coffee. We could interpret this as Kid imagining Bud while Faye is real, or that in his dream/delusion he can’t process enough information to give both characters activities. More on that later.
Enter Doc Goldman. It would seem that Doc Goldman is a real character, and perhaps intrudes on Kid’s delusion in an effort to treat his “condition”. First in the diner — which contrasted with the scene at Bert’s bar is much more real. People respond to him, the server tries to reason with him, and Doc notices him right away. This is when we have the second “flash edit” and Kid goes from talking to Doc in the booth to trimming hedge’s at Doc’s house. Doc calls Kid “Collie” (odd, seems like Faye came up with that) and echoes the first conversation Kid has with Faye at her house. This segment of the film seems real, which may be why Kid ends up fleeing back to Faye’s (his delusion). It’s uncomfortable for him and he can’t resist moving on. It also parallels a later scene at Bud’s place. Also, there is a faint heartbeat heard when doc is speaking, which will be reprised in their next conversation.
Kid returns to Faye’s, but he arrives with red wine covering his shirt (from the bottle shattering as he jumped off a moving truck). This foreshadows his demise, but the scene is also very odd. They hug as if he’s returning to a spouse after a long absence, rather than someone he met during the course of one day. It’s almost like the scene is meant to occur after the events of the film, as if Kid’s ghost came back to Faye. Abruptly after that Kid is scoping out the golf course with Uncle Bud. He basically goes from meeting Bud to agreeing to the crime instantly. An odd jump in events for a typical movie, but if it’s Kid’s fantasy/dream then it makes sense. There is a “flash edit” here before a boxing match flashback, but it seems different than the others since it’s not jumping ahead. It does sort of seem that this boxing match is a parallel version of Uncle Bud duping Kid into the scheme. Or perhaps it’s “Jack” vs. Kid in a battle for his sanity.
Doc shows up again, this time seeking to inform Faye of Kid’s condition. This seems to symbolize reality intruding on Kid’s delusion, which he’s able to keep at bay temporarily. When Doc later phones Faye, we assume Faye fled out of fear of Kid. However, when Uncle Bud appears immediately afterwards it would seem as though they were the same person — as if Faye literally turned into Bud. Also, when Kid calls Doc to explain the situation, he tells Doc that he’s “where he’s always been” — in his fantasy.
We then see the flashback of Kid’s boxing match that ended in him killing his opponent. However, when the cameras flash there appears to be no one in the audience. It kind of seems like this is only inside his head, as if he’s been fighting himself and reached the tipping point. We take for granted that Kid was “up for murder” because of this, but if he’s really Jack Billingsley then the whole thing could be a memory that he used to construct his delusion. After the flashback, Kid wakes up sitting by a window. This wake-up start to a scene will happen two more times in the film. It definitely adds to the possibility of the dream/fantasy idea, as though Kid is weaving this story in and out of actual reality. The transition to the next scene is very peculiar, as Kid goes from balling about Faye’s departure to stoically driving the station wagon to the kidnapping site while dressed as Rogers. Here the use of red is abundant — even a baby stroller he almost crashes into is red (recalls the crying baby outside of Bert’s bar — as we start to see various parallel moments in the film). If he’s creating this story, then it would make sense that various scenes are extremely similar, since he’s likely relying on a finite amount of memories/information to do so.
At this point, the mood of the film seems to shift. Suddenly, Kid is able to fool multiple people into thinking he is actually Rogers (not unlike fooling them into thinking he’s Kid Collins, or “crazy” as later mentioned). He picks up the “wrong boy” who is named Jack. This feels like he’s pulling from a childhood memory, as if kid Jack is actually him. Kid Jack is violent and has to evade punishment….sounds familiar. Also, there appears to be a pair of twins on the golf course as well. This adds to the idea of the Jack/Kid duality. The visual of the two “Rogers” is also very much within this mirror theme, as well as the golf course in general. It’s similar to Faye’s backyard, only it’s lush and green. It’s the kids, not the trees, that lack attention. Kid manages to run through Faye’s yard full-speed but somehow trips while walking in the golf course. Also, the entrance to the golf course somewhat resembles the front doors of Faye’s house. One could theorize that Kid created the golf course based on Faye’s house, the latter possibly being real.
Once Kid is back at the house with Charlie, a bit of reality sets in. This is the first time that Bud and Faye directly interact. Faye is totally out of the loop, and they argue about how the kidnapping went sideways. Kid takes control of the situation, whereas Bud seemed to have had it previously. Following this, Kid and Faye tend to Charlie but Bud never does. He makes absolutely no contact with Charlie (adding to the idea that Bud isn’t real, but perhaps Faye is). Kid’s suspicions grow as he believes Faye is trying to kill Charlie. This leads to the relationship between Faye and Kid becoming volatile, where Kid seems to be getting further and further away from reality. Another line Faye says feels like it has a double meaning. Kid says “this door is wide enough for two people” to which Faye asks “these two?”. Typical noir dialog, but could also refer to Kid’s delusion and likely imagined characters. Faye looks at him as if she realizes he’s completely insane. After a long pause, she abruptly leaves the house — much like the first time when she learns of his “condition”. Perhaps there are moments of reality here and there in the story, and we are only seeing the “real Faye” in these moments.
Here we have the third “flash edit” when Faye wakes up the gun-wielding Kid to tell him of Charlie’s sickness. Immediately before this, the line that Charlie says to Kid is echoed at the end of the film right before Kid is shot. The flash edit is odd because it does not seem that anything has changed, only jumped ahead slightly in time. However, Faye had just mysteriously left in the car. Where did she go? Why?
When Kid thinks of the plan to get insulin from Doc Goldman’s house, this scene mirrors the earlier bar scene with Bert and Faye. Faye is oddly sitting against the wall and never speaks. Again, it’s like Kid is not able to generate the energy to allow both Bud and Faye to exist in each moment of his delusion. She becomes an NPC during the scene. Also, when Bud drops Kid off at Doc’s he says “remember Kid, we’re pals”. Recall earlier when “the wrong boy” (Jack) used that phrase when talking to Kid (referring to Uncle Bud — “killing time with a pal”). Things start to accelerate and the delusion starts to unravel.
When Bert re-enters the plot, it seems as though the logic of Kid’s delusion is falling apart. We have no explanation as to why Bert shows up, what he wants with Bud, or how he knows about the airport arrangement. Perhaps Bert is the one who actually has connections with the “department”?
Kid is again waken up by Faye, this time saying that Charlie ran away. The behavior from Faye is a bit odd here and she keeps changing her story. After they recover Charlie, we’re left wondering what Faye is up to. She uses the phrase “beat his brains out” when referring to Charlie, which is very similar to the line yelled by the audience member at the boxing match (mentioned at the start of the film). Faye yelling “I tried to kill him, I mean to, I did!” seems like what Kid would confess about the boxing match, only he’s blaming it on insanity. At this moment Doc Goldman suddenly shows up. This is when reality really threatens Kid’s delusion. His response is to kill Doc and continue on with the plan, even as it’s totally hopeless. He knows he won’t get the money, he is ruining his chances with Faye, and he now has to worry about a murder charge.
When Faye and Kid meet Bud in the sweatshop apartment, a worker looks up at Kid and noticeably has a lazy eye. This recalls the image of Kid in the boxing ring with blood covering most of his left eye, as if his memories are starting to mix into the delusion. Faye then disappears into a room to tend to Charlie, but again does not speak at all to Bud. Oddly, this scene resembles when Kid first goes to stay with Doc at his house (same colored bedding, having to go through a main area to get to the back living quarters, etc.). It seems like Kid is reimagining that scene but as more of a dark nightmare where he’s kind of doing the opposite. Instead of politely listening to Doc’s suggestion to stay for a year (and then sneaking out at night), he outright refuses Bud’s plan and instead forces him to walk into a police trap.
Later, as Faye and Kid wait for Bud to emerge from the airport with the ransom money, a cop interrogates Kid and demands license and registration. Kid makes up a story on the spot, stating Faye is his wife and that he’s waiting for a friend named Jack Billingsley. He even tells the cop that Jack is coming on a plane from the east (recall in the bar when he told Faye Jack was driving with him heading south). This is possibly a clue that Kid has been fabricating this story all along, and now the characters he’s created are disappearing — both Bud and Bert get killed at the airport terminal. Kid is miraculously given a way out by the cop, merely by being “recognized” as Kid Collins. It would seem, at least within this theory, that the main character/Jack Billingsley is playing a type of game, and his character is Kid Collins (recall when Kid says to Bud about kid Jack that “I’ll make him think it’s some kind of game”). However, even with the out he got from the cop, he was not going to escape the game.
With Doc’s murder and Faye’s future in peril, he ends up creating a scenario where he can absolve Faye of the entire crime and feel like a hero at the same time. What’s interesting is that Kid puts his jacket on before he gets Faye to shoot him (while acting as though he’s going to kill Charlie). Kid was wearing that jacket at the start of the film, and he emerges from desert rocks in a similar setting to where he dies at the end. Does the game start over? Is Kid stuck in the delusion in some kind of purgatorial hell? Well, he doesn’t close his eyes before the end, so we don’t know for sure that he dies.
The film ends with a repeat of an earlier bit of dialog being played over Kid’s lifeless face. Faye says “you and me together forever…you really believe that Collie?” to which Kid replies “I know it Faye”. The earlier line has another part that Faye says — “you really believe there could be a you and me?”. Suggesting that if Kid is essentially just “talking to a mirror”, then we know the answer.
