Emotionally unengaging, overlong and frequently dull drama, despite the best efforts of its talented cast.
Evening (2007)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:121
Fresh:33
Rotten:88
Average Rating:4.9/10
Consensus: Beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull, Evening is a collossal waste of a talented cast.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some thematic elements, sexual material, a brief accident scene and language
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: , Romance, Period Piece, Theatrical Release
Theatrical Release:Jun 29, 2007 Wide
Box Office: $12,406,646
Synopsis: Evening unites a stellar cast, and is based on the beloved novel by Susan Minot and adapted for the screen by Ms. Minot and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours), under the... Evening unites a stellar cast, and is based on the beloved novel by Susan Minot and adapted for the screen by Ms. Minot and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Michael Cunningham (The Hours), under the direction of Lajos Koltai (Fateless), who was previously an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer. Evening is a deeply emotional film that illuminates the timeless love which binds mother and daughter – seen through the prism of one mother’s life as it crests with optimism, navigates a turning point, and ebbs to its close. Two pairs of real-life mothers and daughters – Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer – portray, respectively, a mother and her daughter and the mother’s best friend at different stages in life. Overcome by the power of memory, Ann Lord (Ms. Redgrave) reveals a long-held secret to her concerned daughters; Constance (Ms. Richardson), a content wife and mother, and Nina (Toni Collette), a restless single woman. Both are bedside when Ann calls out for the man she loved more than any other. But who is this “Harris,” wonder her daughters, and what is he to our mother? While Constance and Nina try to take stock of Ann’s life and their own lives, their mother is tended to by a night nurse (Eileen Atkins) as she journeys in her mind back to a summer weekend some fifty years ago, when she was Ann Grant (Claire Danes)… ...a young woman who has come from New York City to be maid of honor at the high-society Newport wedding of her dearest friend from college, Lila Wittenborn (Ms. Gummer). The bride-to-be is jittery, and turns to her maid of honor rather than her own mother (Glenn Close) for support. Ann stays close to her friend, yet is even closer to Lila’s irrepressible brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy). Unexpected feelings surge forth once Ann meets wedding guest Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson), a lifelong friend and intimate of the Wittenborn family. Ann’s love for Harris will change her life, and those of her daughters, forever. -- © Focus Features [More]
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson, Toni Collette
Starring: Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson, Toni Collette, Natasha Richardson, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Hugh Dancy, Mamie Gummer
Director: Lajos Koltai
Director: Lajos Koltai
Screenwriter: Michael Cunningham, Susan Minot
Producer: Jeff Sharp
Composer: Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
Studio: Focus Features
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Reviews for Evening
An astounding cast and high production values make this film worth seeing, even as turns into a girly melodrama.
The film is a fine example of what works within the pages of a book doesn't necessarily work onscreen, particularly when the book in question is as dense as Minot's, and apparently as fragile.
It's quite an achievement to get such a group of esteemed actresses together for something of such little consequence.
While overall EVENING doesn't quite reach the heights it should, it is well worth while, if for no other reason than to see a bevy of marvelous actresses ...
This is a film full of meaningful aspirations and although it tries to convince us in the end that there is no such thing as a mistake, I can't help feeling that the film is an opportunity missed.
Bittersweet and deeply, achingly romantic, this perfect, perfect film... enfolds regrets and memories and love and hope in [a] snug embrace...
The movie plays out slowly, but it's not an action movie, so that's okay. It's all about emotions with deep connections between the characters.
The performances are terrific, but they are hampered by an overly convoluted script that takes a very simple concept and complicates it with a back-and-forth temporal flow and an overabundance of characters and relationships.
It holds attention, offers admirable performances, and engenders emotional involvement as few recent movies have.
There's a better movie somewhere inside this saccharine weepy that telegraphs its melodramatics with shameless glee.
Even as I admired most of the performances -- and I do stress most of them -- I found myself searching in vain for one character to care about.
Evening is not without interest. The problem is that most of the interest stems from the inevitable fascination generated by watching a slow-motion train wreck.
That's not to say that Evening is a turkey, but rather a delicate canary that never really finds its voice.
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