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[[Peter Travers]] of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' rated the film itself 2½ out of a possible four stars, but praised the cast, writing, "the actors&nbsp;... provide flashes of brilliance. Hugh Dancy scores as the plot's catalyst for tragedy. And Claire Danes is stellar as the young Ann&nbsp;... [Mamie] Gummer proves her talent is her own in a star-is-born performance that signals an exceptional career ahead."<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Peter |last=Travers |author-link=Peter Travers |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/evening-90534/ |title=Evening |date=June 13, 2007 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=November 16, 2018 }}</ref>
[[Peter Travers]] of ''[[Rolling Stone]]'' rated the film itself 2½ out of a possible four stars, but praised the cast, writing, "the actors&nbsp;... provide flashes of brilliance. Hugh Dancy scores as the plot's catalyst for tragedy. And Claire Danes is stellar as the young Ann&nbsp;... [Mamie] Gummer proves her talent is her own in a star-is-born performance that signals an exceptional career ahead."<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Peter |last=Travers |author-link=Peter Travers |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/movies/movie-reviews/evening-90534/ |title=Evening |date=June 13, 2007 |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |access-date=November 16, 2018 }}</ref>


In the ''[[St. Petersburg Times]]'', Steve Persall graded the film C and added "Strong performances and an author's weak backbone make ''Evening'' a curious mistake...[it] is memorable only for lovely period designs and for casting mothers and daughters to ensure better continuity."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/28/Movies/You_ve_read_the_book_.shtml |title=Evening Review |author=Steve Persall |date=June 28, 2007 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |access-date=29 May 2018 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215204/http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/28/Movies/You_ve_read_the_book_.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>
In the ''[[St. Petersburg Times]]'', Steve Persall graded the film C and added "Strong performances and an author's weak backbone make ''Evening'' a curious mistake&nbsp;... [it] is memorable only for lovely period designs and for casting mothers and daughters to ensure better continuity."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/28/Movies/You_ve_read_the_book_.shtml |title=Evening Review |author=Steve Persall |date=June 28, 2007 |newspaper=St. Petersburg Times |access-date=29 May 2018 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303215204/http://www.sptimes.com/2007/06/28/Movies/You_ve_read_the_book_.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref>


Justin Chang of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote "The more immediate problem with this ambitious, elliptical film is Koltai and editor Allyson C. Johnson's difficulty in establishing a narrative rhythm, as the back-and-forth shifts in time that seemed delicately free-associative on the page are rendered with considerably less grace onscreen. In ways reminiscent of [[Stephen Daldry]]'s film of ''[[The Hours (film)|The Hours]]'', the telling connections between past and present feel calculated rather than authentically illuminating."<ref>{{cite web |date=June 21, 2007 |first=Justin |last=Chang |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933970 |title=''Variety'' review |publisher=Variety |access-date=29 May 2021 }}</ref>
Justin Chang of ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' wrote "The more immediate problem with this ambitious, elliptical film is Koltai and editor Allyson C. Johnson's difficulty in establishing a narrative rhythm, as the back-and-forth shifts in time that seemed delicately free-associative on the page are rendered with considerably less grace onscreen. In ways reminiscent of [[Stephen Daldry]]'s film of ''[[The Hours (film)|The Hours]]'', the telling connections between past and present feel calculated rather than authentically illuminating."<ref>{{cite web |date=June 21, 2007 |first=Justin |last=Chang |url=https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117933970 |title=''Variety'' review |publisher=Variety |access-date=29 May 2021 }}</ref>


In ''Time'', [[Richard Schickel]] said the film "represents perhaps the greatest diva round-up in modern movie history...Wow, you might think, how bad can ''that'' be? To which one responds, after two lugubrious hours in their company, really awful. Rarely have so many gifted women labored so tastefully to bring forth such a wee, lockjawed mouse...This may in part because it was Michael Cunningham, author of the book ''[[The Hours (novel)|The Hours]]'', another stupefying exercise in unspoken angst, who was hired to punch up the script Susan Minot was trying to make out of her novel. They share screenplay credit for ''Evening'', but even in the press kit you can sense her loathing for his work. He's sort of [[Henry James]] without the cojones and definitely the most constipated sensibility the literary community has lately been in awe of. But I suspect that the director, Lajos Koltai, a Hungarian, has even more to do with the film's inertness."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1638792,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701105717/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1638792,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 1, 2007 |title=Some Unenchanted Evening |first=Richard |last=Schickel |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]] |location=New York City |date=June 29, 2007 |access-date=May 29, 2018 }}</ref>
In ''Time'', [[Richard Schickel]] said the film "represents perhaps the greatest diva round-up in modern movie history&nbsp;... Wow, you might think, how bad can ''that'' be? To which one responds, after two lugubrious hours in their company, really awful. Rarely have so many gifted women labored so tastefully to bring forth such a wee, lockjawed mouse&nbsp;... This may in part because it was Michael Cunningham, author of the book ''[[The Hours (novel)|The Hours]]'', another stupefying exercise in unspoken angst, who was hired to punch up the script Susan Minot was trying to make out of her novel. They share screenplay credit for ''Evening'', but even in the press kit you can sense her loathing for his work. He's sort of [[Henry James]] without the cojones and definitely the most constipated sensibility the literary community has lately been in awe of. But I suspect that the director, Lajos Koltai, a Hungarian, has even more to do with the film's inertness."<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1638792,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070701105717/http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1638792,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=July 1, 2007 |title=Some Unenchanted Evening |first=Richard |last=Schickel |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]] |location=New York City |date=June 29, 2007 |access-date=May 29, 2018 }}</ref>


[[Lisa Schwarzbaum]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' rated ''Evening'' as the second-worst movie of 2007 (behind ''[[I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry]]'').<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Lisa |last=Schwarzbaum |author-link=Lisa Schwarzbaum |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20162677_20164091_20167446_3,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071229012009/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20162677_20164091_20167446_3,00.html |archive-date=December 29, 2007 |title=Photo 4 - The Worst Movies of 2007 - The Best & Worst of 2007 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]] |location=New York City |access-date=29 May 2018 }}</ref>
[[Lisa Schwarzbaum]] of ''[[Entertainment Weekly]]'' rated ''Evening'' as the second-worst movie of 2007 (behind ''[[I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry]]'').<ref>{{cite magazine |first=Lisa |last=Schwarzbaum |author-link=Lisa Schwarzbaum |url=https://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20162677_20164091_20167446_3,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071229012009/http://www.ew.com/ew/gallery/0,,20162677_20164091_20167446_3,00.html |archive-date=December 29, 2007 |title=Photo 4 - The Worst Movies of 2007 - The Best & Worst of 2007 |magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]] |publisher=[[Meredith Corporation]] |location=New York City |access-date=29 May 2018 }}</ref>

Revision as of 19:19, 2 June 2022

Not to be confused with Evenings (film).
Evening
Original poster
Directed byLajos Koltai
Written bySusan Minot
Michael Cunningham
Based onEvening
by Susan Minot
Produced byJeffrey Sharp
Starring
CinematographyGyula Pados
Edited byAllyson C. Johnson
Music byJan A. P. Kaczmarek
Distributed byFocus Features
Release date
June 29, 2007 (2007-06-29)
Running time
117 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$30 million[citation needed]
Box office$20,016,753[1]

Evening is a 2007 American drama film directed by Lajos Koltai. The screenplay by Susan Minot and Michael Cunningham is based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Susan Minot.

Plot

The film alternates between the 1950s and the present, in which a dying Ann Grant Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) reflects on her past. Her comments about people she never mentioned before leave her daughters, Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette), wondering if she is delusional.

As a young woman in her early twenties, cabaret singer Ann (Claire Danes) arrives at the spacious Newport, Rhode Island, home of her best friend Lila Wittenborn (Mamie Gummer), who is soon to marry Karl Ross (Timothy Kiefer). Lila's brother (and Ann's college friend) Buddy (Hugh Dancy) introduces her to Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson), a young doctor and the son of a former family servant. Buddy tells Ann his sister has always adored Harris, and expresses his concern that she's marrying another out of a sense of duty rather than love. Drunk, Buddy passes out, and as Ann and Harris chat they have an instant connection.

On Lila's wedding day, she tells Ann that she confronted Harris with her feelings and he rebuffed her, so she marries Karl as planned. At the reception, Ann sings and is joined on stage by Harris. Afterwards Buddy, perpetually drunk, confronts them about their growing closeness. Then he unexpectedly kisses Harris. As Lila prepares to depart with her new husband, Ann offers to help her get away, but Lila refuses and leaves for her honeymoon.

Buddy admits to Ann he and Lila have had a type of crush on Harris since his childhood, though he says not in "that way". He then changes the subject, confessing he has loved Ann for years, offering as proof a quick innocuous note she once gave him he has kept in his pocket ever since.

The younger guests dance drunkenly and dive into the sea from a clifftop: Buddy joins in but fails to surface, prompting a panicked search. When Buddy reappears at the top of the cliff, Ann expresses her anger at the prank and berates him for building her up as his true love and possibly for repressing his feelings for others. Storming off, she and Harris slip off to his secret hideaway and make love.

Buddy, seeking Ann, stumbles into the road and is hit by a car. He is found, but too late to save him. The following morning, Ann and Harris, oblivious to what transpired the night before, jokingly consider sailing away, but at the Wittenborn's they hear the news of Buddy.

In the present day, Lila (Meryl Streep) arrives at Ann's bedside to comfort her and reminisce. Ann recalls a day when she ran into Harris in the street in New York City. By then she had one daughter and was on the verge of moving to Los Angeles, and he was married with a son. He declared he still loved her before they exchanged cordial goodbyes.

As Lila leaves, she tells Nina about Harris and reassures her that her mother did not make any mistakes in her life. Nina sits with Ann, who encourages her daughter to have a happy life. Nina finally musters the courage to tell her boyfriend Luc she is pregnant with their child. An ecstatic Luc proudly announces the news to Constance and promises he always will be there for Nina. Their joy is interrupted by Ann's nurse, who urges the women to rush to bid Ann farewell.

Principal cast

The 1950s

The Present

Production notes

Filming began in September 2006.

The original screenplay, as was the novel, was set in Maine, but according to the commentary on the DVD release of the film, director Lajos Koltai was so taken with the Newport house found by his location scouts he opted to change the setting. A house in Tiverton was used for interior and exterior scenes. Bristol and Providence, Rhode Island, Greenwich Village, and the Upper West Side of Manhattan also were used for external scenes. Most of the automobiles were provided by the Antique Car Barn from Pawtucket, Rhode Island.

The song "Time After Time" which Ann sings for Lila at the wedding was written in 1947 by Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne. The song "I See the Moon" she later sings to her daughters is based on a traditional nursery rhyme.

The film grossed $12,406,646 in the US and $478,928 in foreign markets for a total worldwide box office of $12,885,574.[2]

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a 27% approval rating, based on 129 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Beautifully filmed, but decidedly dull, Evening is a collossal [sic] waste of a talented cast."[3] On Metacritic it has a score of 45% based on reviews from 33 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[4]

Manohla Dargis of The New York Times wrote "Stuffed with actors of variable talent, burdened with false, labored dialogue and distinguished by a florid visual style better suited to fairy tales and greeting cards, this miscalculation underlines what can happen when certain literary works meet the bottom line of the movies. It also proves that not every book deserves its own film."[5]

In the San Francisco Chronicle, Mick LaSalle observed "The film arrives at a pessimistic and almost nihilistic view of life as something not very important - and then invites us to take strength and comfort in the notion. It's not what you'd expect, and it's certainly not the typical message. It might be the most interesting thing about the picture."[6]

Peter Travers of Rolling Stone rated the film itself 2½ out of a possible four stars, but praised the cast, writing, "the actors ... provide flashes of brilliance. Hugh Dancy scores as the plot's catalyst for tragedy. And Claire Danes is stellar as the young Ann ... [Mamie] Gummer proves her talent is her own in a star-is-born performance that signals an exceptional career ahead."[7]

In the St. Petersburg Times, Steve Persall graded the film C and added "Strong performances and an author's weak backbone make Evening a curious mistake ... [it] is memorable only for lovely period designs and for casting mothers and daughters to ensure better continuity."[8]

Justin Chang of Variety wrote "The more immediate problem with this ambitious, elliptical film is Koltai and editor Allyson C. Johnson's difficulty in establishing a narrative rhythm, as the back-and-forth shifts in time that seemed delicately free-associative on the page are rendered with considerably less grace onscreen. In ways reminiscent of Stephen Daldry's film of The Hours, the telling connections between past and present feel calculated rather than authentically illuminating."[9]

In Time, Richard Schickel said the film "represents perhaps the greatest diva round-up in modern movie history ... Wow, you might think, how bad can that be? To which one responds, after two lugubrious hours in their company, really awful. Rarely have so many gifted women labored so tastefully to bring forth such a wee, lockjawed mouse ... This may in part because it was Michael Cunningham, author of the book The Hours, another stupefying exercise in unspoken angst, who was hired to punch up the script Susan Minot was trying to make out of her novel. They share screenplay credit for Evening, but even in the press kit you can sense her loathing for his work. He's sort of Henry James without the cojones and definitely the most constipated sensibility the literary community has lately been in awe of. But I suspect that the director, Lajos Koltai, a Hungarian, has even more to do with the film's inertness."[10]

Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly rated Evening as the second-worst movie of 2007 (behind I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry).[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Evening". Box Office Mojo.
  2. ^ "Evening (2007) - Financial Information". Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  3. ^ Evening at Rotten Tomatoes
  4. ^ "Evening". Metacritic. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  5. ^ Dargis, Manohla (29 June 2007). "Evening - Movies - Review". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  6. ^ LaSalle, Mick (June 29, 2007). "Dying woman young again in memory". San Francisco Chronicle. San Francisco, California: Hearst Corporation. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  7. ^ Travers, Peter (June 13, 2007). "Evening". Rolling Stone. Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  8. ^ Steve Persall (June 28, 2007). "Evening Review". St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  9. ^ Chang, Justin (June 21, 2007). "Variety review". Variety. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  10. ^ Schickel, Richard (June 29, 2007). "Some Unenchanted Evening". Time. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on July 1, 2007. Retrieved May 29, 2018.
  11. ^ Schwarzbaum, Lisa. "Photo 4 - The Worst Movies of 2007 - The Best & Worst of 2007". Entertainment Weekly. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on December 29, 2007. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
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