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Movies / On DVD / Evening
Evening

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Evening (2007)

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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: 12A [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:21-09-2007

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

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 >> >|
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The performances are oddly muted, as if the screenplay refuses to allow a fine cast full rein. But those who loved the book can be assured that it has been translated faithfully enough to the screen.

Full Review Source: This is London | comment 1 Comment
09/21/07
Derek Malcolm
Derek Malcolm
This is London

An old lady takes a long time to die in this po-faced literary effort as a bed-ridden Redgrave looks back to the golden summer when her young self (Danes) found love.

Full Review Source: thelondonpaper | comment Comment
09/21/07
Neil Smith
Neil Smith
thelondonpaper

Some big names have been assembled for this old-fashioned "woman's picture" about thwarted expectations and lifelong regrets.

Full Review Source: Independent | comment Comment
09/21/07
Anthony Quinn
Anthony Quinn
Independent

I am against the exploitation of women for sentimental screen purposes (Steel Magnolias, Crimes of the Heart). But what can you do? Here they moon and croon across a time divide.

Full Review Source: Financial Times | comment Comment
09/21/07
Nigel Andrews
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times

An affected and overwrought adaptation of Susan Minot's novel about a dying woman's memories of a complicated romantic incident in her youth.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
09/21/07
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Evening is a film about regrets that doesn’t say an awful lot, but somehow holds your attention with the scenes between Redgrave and Streep sure to bring a tear to your eye – or at least your mum’s.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
09/21/07
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

Dull. It's hard to engage with the characters, the themes are underdeveloped and the tone is flat as the waters lapping the Wittenborn beach.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
09/21/07
Daniel Etherington
Daniel Etherington
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Adapting from Susan Minot’s bestseller, Hungarian director Lajos Koltai’s (Fateless) pulls together a formidable cast – Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Toni Collette – but then leaves them to wade through a sickly stew.

Full Review Source: Total Film | comment Comment
09/21/07
Carmen Grey
Carmen Grey
Total Film

Evening is a slow burner, so slow in fact the credits roll before it ever gets going.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
09/21/07
Laura Bushell
Laura Bushell
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's a very odd film that can discuss heart-blackening guilt, loveless marriage, pain and regret only to taper off into a dry-eyed ending.

Full Review Source: Little White Lies | comment Comment
09/21/07
Monisha Rajesh
Monisha Rajesh
Little White Lies

The film disintegrates into an indulgent succession of intense, fawning exchanges that overwhelm Minot’s thin and monotonous tale.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
09/21/07
Amy Simmons
Amy Simmons
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Recycling ideas and characters from 250 years of romantic literature without adding any new ones of its own, Evening is like dining with Jane Austen and Barbara Cartland and not being allowed to get down from the table.

Full Review Source: Sky Movies | comment Comment
09/21/07
Elliott Noble
Elliott Noble
Sky Movies

This multi-generational chick flick may be blessed with a stellar cast but unfortunately errs on the pretentious side.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
09/21/07
Angie Errigo
Angie Errigo
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Emotionally unengaging, overlong and frequently dull drama, despite the best efforts of its talented cast.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
09/20/07
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Screen International | comment Comment
07/31/07
Screen International

An astounding cast and high production values make this film worth seeing, even as turns into a girly melodrama.

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
07/28/07
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Given its stellar cast -- including Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close -- and source material, it's hard not to think it should be better.

Full Review Source: Times-Picayune | comment Comment
10/23/09
Mike Scott
Mike Scott
Times-Picayune

Antiseptic bourgeois swank

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/27/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix

What's the difference between slasher films and chick flicks? In slasher films they suffer less, and they die quicker. Evening, bless its banal heart, is a chick flick in all its fatuous glory.

Full Review Source: Fayetteville Free Weekly | comment Comment
02/02/09
Tony Macklin
Tony Macklin
Fayetteville Free Weekly
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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