EVENING
RYAN: We’ve just seen one of the most beautiful films of 2007, and I mean that both visually and narrative-ly.
CAROLINE: The movie is “Evening,” and it stars everyone and their mother. Because this movie got some blah reviews, I went in with low expectations and I was prepared to hate it; but I actually quite liked it.
RYAN: I had high expectations because of its all-star cast. It’s got the most star-studded cast next to “Hairspray,” though of course it’s not a musical. Glenn Close, Meryl Streep, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Vanessa Redgrave; and anything with the gorgeous Patrick Wilson is an easy film for me to watch. He’s very good in this movie.
CAROLINE: And there’s more than one handsome man in this film. The other is Claire Danes’s real-life boyfriend, the English Hugh Dancy who plays an American and does a flawless accent.
RYAN: His American accent was one of the best I’ve ever heard. And I loved seeing Meryl Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, portraying a young version of her mom’s character in the film. She was fine; not great, just fine.
CAROLINE: But truly one of the best things about this film is how stunning it is. It’s set in Newport, Rhode Island at this gorgeous house on a craggy cliff, and it’s so beautiful.
RYAN: The light and the color are really gorgeous. There is also some musicality in the film with some fun dancing scenes. And Claire Danes plays a girl who’s supposed to be a singer, but unfortunately Claire Danes can’t sing to save her life and she sounds terrible.
CAROLINE: Terrible might be a little bit of a strong word. But she’s not so fabulous, that’s for sure.
RYAN: Her acting performance is great though.
CAROLINE: This movie is reminiscent of “The Notebook” in that it goes back and forth in flashbacks from the present day to the 1950s. Sometimes the back and forth was a little too frequent and the movie felt a little choppy. I preferred “The Notebook.”
RYAN: I like flashbacks in a film so it didn’t bother me. But it was funny how much Meryl Streep’s daughter looks like her, but then Claire Danes, who plays the young Vanessa Redgrave in flashbacks, looks nothing like Vanessa at all.
CAROLINE: Vanessa Redgrave’s real daughter, Natasha Richardson plays her daughter in the film too, and then the sister is Toni Collette, who looks nothing like either of them. But she’s a half-sister so we’ll let it slide. And I must say that like Hugh Dancy, Toni Collette also does an American accent like no other, with the exception of Katie Winslet.
RYAN: I really liked how the film illustrates when one is close to dying, like Vanessa Redgrave’s character, the closure and the reminiscing they need to do. Bottom line?
CAROLINE: I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I had read some reviews that said the book, which I didn’t read, didn’t translate well onto the big screen, but I thought the movie was lovely and cinematic. The performances were great – not a weak link in the bunch. And it was fun to picture Claire and her cute BF frolicking in real life as they do in this film.
RYAN: I like to judge movies for myself and form my own opinions, because more often than not, I love movies that critics hate and vice versa. I went in with high expectations and I still really liked this film. I don’t know why anyone isn’t liking it. It was paced very well and it kept my interest the whole way through.
CAROLINE: Me too, but I could see how someone might think it was slow. It’s a languid film, which bothers some people. But we dug it.