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.
Evening (2007)
Runtime: 1 hr 57 mins
Genre: Drama, Romance, Period Piece
Starring: Claire Danes, Patrick Wilson, Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Natasha Richardson
Screenwriter: Michael Cunningham, Susan Minot
Producer: Jeff Sharp
Composer: Jan A.P. Kaczmarek
DVD Info
Release:
Jan 9, 2009
DVD Features:
- Region 1
- Snap Case
- Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.40
Audio:
- Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
- Subtitles - English (SDH), French, Spanish - Optional
Additional Release Material:
- Deleted Scenes
- Featurette - 1. ONE WEEKEND BY THE SEA: REMEMBERING EVENING
- 2. Adapting EVENING
Reviews
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.
Some big names have been assembled for this old-fashioned "woman's picture" about thwarted expectations and lifelong regrets.
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.
An affected and overwrought adaptation of Susan Minot's novel about a dying woman's memories of a complicated romantic incident in her youth.
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.
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.
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.
Evening is a slow burner, so slow in fact the credits roll before it ever gets going.
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.
The film disintegrates into an indulgent succession of intense, fawning exchanges that overwhelm Minot’s thin and monotonous tale.
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.
This multi-generational chick flick may be blessed with a stellar cast but unfortunately errs on the pretentious side.
Emotionally unengaging, overlong and frequently dull drama, despite the best efforts of its talented cast.
An astounding cast and high production values make this film worth seeing, even as turns into a girly melodrama.
Frankly I could watch Danes, Collette, Streep, Close, Richardson, etc., as they go food shopping, which just goes to show what a bunch of great actors can do for a fairly conventional tear-jerker.
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.
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