Evening
Directed by Lajos Koltai.
Evening is about both the descent into death as well
as the grappling climb-and-plunge through life. Ann Grant Lord, played in her
old age by Vanessa Redgrave, is dying, and on her death bed she has fevered
flashbacks of her relational 'mistakes'. Her two daughters, particularly her
eldest Nina (Toni Collette), find themselves drawn into their mother's past as
she lets slip names and events in her restless sleep. Watching her mother
struggle to accept the course of her life before she passes away, daughter Nina
is led to think about her own romantic and emotional uncertainties.
The movie alternates between Ann Grant's bedridden existence and a defining moment of her youth. This moment is the wedding of her best friend Lila Winterborn (the young Lila is played by Mamie Gummer; the old by Meryl Streep) at the Winterborns' seaside estate. There we see a web of love and friendship, more often of the unrequited than the mutual kind. Lila and Ann are both in love with the striking Harris (Patrick Wilson), and this is a point of contact that has permanent and jarring effects on both their lives. On the side is Lila's brother and Ann's close friend Buddy (played brilliantly by Hugh Dancy) who is crushed by the weight of a secret and unreturned affection.
If this sounds complicated, it is, both in the sheer number of characters and actors involved, and in their interrelations. The 'evening' of the title really refers to two evenings: the metaphorical evening of Ann Grant's life, and that fateful evening in Ann, Lila, Harris and Buddy's youth decades ago. As you might have picked up, this means two sets of actors for the young and old Ann and Lila. This is done convincingly; I was especially impressed by Clare Danes' performance as the spontaneous young Ann. I couldn't see past Toni Collette to the character of Nina however, and this to me was the weakest acting part. On the whole I found the action (acting, story) of the 1950s wedding party far more compelling than the present-day action.
Evening is based on the book by Susan Minot, and was co-adapted for screen by Minot and Michael Cunningham — best-known for his novel/film The Hours. Like The Hours, Evening looks at the struggle for emotional fulfillment in all its characters. It is as such what you might call a sentimental film: a thoughtfully sentimental film that is quite well made.
4/5 Stars
Prithvi Varatharajan
When we are old and our whole lives have almost been lived, what will we look back and think about? What will be forgotten and what will be remembered? And what will the people around us think when they look at our story? These are some of the questions explored in the star-studded Evening.
As she lies on her deathbed, Ann Grant looks back over her life and fixes on a particular episode fifty years earlier, when she was a carefree young woman living a bohemian life in Greenwich Village and aspiring to be a singer. Her memory takes her back to when she was a bridesmaid at her best friend Lila's wedding and the two girls fell passionately in love with the same man. As she thinks of the way the circumstances of that week unfolded, she contrasts what she was like then with how the rest of her life has worked out. She comes to terms with her experiences of love, marriage, and motherhood, as well as the challenges she faced like many other women in trying to realize her ambitions.
Evening's incredible cast indicates that some of the greatest actors of our time all found something very special in this story. Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave share the role of the young and old Ann, and likewise Meryl Streep shares the part of Lila with her real life daughter Mamie Gummer. With the other cast members including Glenn Close, Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson, Evening feels quite a bit like The Hours crossed with a Merchant Ivory film, and in fact the screenplay is co-written by Michael Cunningham, who wrote the novel of The Hours. As with The Hours, relationships between females are central, and some of the best scenes are the ones depicting the intimate conversations of women. When Michael Cunningham visited Adelaide last year for Writers' Week, he said how he'd loved Mrs Dalloway for being the "epic story of everyday life." In Evening we see the fifty-year saga of a woman's life, with all its ordinary events, but with all its extraordinary moments. Overall, Evening makes warm and rewarding viewing.
Three stars.
Madeline Bradford-Becker
