Rutger Hauer as stars as Ben Jordan, a man who has served fifteen years in prison for murdering his wife. Out on parole, he is assigned to social worker Laura Mathews (Natasha Richardson). She begins to believe he's innocent, and begins to become smitten with him, much to the chagrin of her co-worker Steve (Clancy Brown), who also has feelings for her and fears for her life. Shown in a film festival before being released straight to TV, Past Midnight is notable for being Quentin Tarantino's first screen credit. He did some re-writes on the screenplay and was credited as "Associate Producer." None of it sounds like his writing except for one scene in which the characters literally talk about pulp fiction novels (David Goodis and John D. MacDonald). It's also the first screen credit for Paul Giamatti! Unfortunately, none of it works very well, and it's all pretty generic.
Alliance's Blu-ray release is packaged with a "retro-VHS" slipcover that I absolutely love. The only bonus is optional English subtitles.
