Evening (2007)

Directed by: Lajos Koltai | 117 minutes | drama | Actors: Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Vanessa Redgrave, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, Natasha Richardson, Mamie Gummer, Eileen Atkins, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Cheryl Lynn Bowers, David Call, Margaret Coen, Kara F. Doherty, David Furr, Timothy Kiefer, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Chris Stack, Sheila Thomas, Sarah Viccellio

“Ah, it doesn’t matter all that much.” is what Meryl Streep’s character Lila Wittenborn preaches at the end of ‘Evening’ in response to all the dramatic developments that the characters, and the viewer, have had to struggle through for two hours. Such bland disenchantment is well suited to a movie like Monty Python’s “Life of Brian,” but not to a movie that likes to compare it to “The Hours.” However, before we reach the bland end, it’s already clear that this film can’t handle that comparison. The film falls short on all counts. The story is a mishmash of various small dramas that alternate in intensity but sometimes mysteriously disappear from the picture again. It will never be clear what exactly happened on that particular evening fifty years ago that changed Ann Grant’s life so drastically. Her romance with Harris Arden isn’t exactly spectacular, but the other dramas of that evening all fade out like night candles.

The cast tries to make the most of it. As always, Toni Collette plays very strong and Mamie Gummer, the daughter of, also stands out with an excellent imitation of a young Meryl Streep. Streep herself is a genius again, but she only appears on the scene in the last fifteen minutes of the film. Remarkably enough, Glenn Close steals the show amidst all the acting violence as the dour Mrs. Wittenborn. Every scene in which she plays brings to life not only her own, but also the other characters. Unfortunately, her role is small. Most of the film is filled by a delirious Ann Grant, played by Vanessa Redgrave, who never gives the impression of actually dying, and her young version, played Claire Danes, who also clearly falls short. Both also have the misfortune that Ann Grant’s character is not interesting at all. Especially unfortunate for the viewer.

Cinematically, the film is well put together. The film opens in the present, in which the oppressive atmosphere of the Grant family is immediately apparent. Characters are filmed up close and there is little lighting. What a contrast the flashbacks then form: the camera shows the landscapes and various characters who dazzle the viewer with a rainbow of bright colors. The grass is greener than green, the sea bluer than blue, the clothes brighter than bright. This shows the unreality of the flashback well. You literally see the ‘colouredness’ of the memory, but at the same time as a viewer it is difficult to suppress the comparison with advertisements for detergents. Especially when Ann spontaneously bursts into dancing with Buddy, a college friend of hers. In one long shot we see the two dancing through the brightly lit rooms, but at that moment you also realize what is really missing in the film: real spontaneity. Everything seems too much thought out. The characters don’t live, they stay stuck in their book. This becomes painfully clear in the spontaneously intended scenes. Perhaps if the film hadn’t clung to its deadly serious ambitions, it could have succeeded. Now a failed mishmash of drama and romance arises that only very rarely really comes to life. The lightness is never without tension while the real drama lacks its impact.

So ‘Evening’ has not become a tearjerker, nor is it a film to swoon over. No prizes will be won with it, except perhaps for Glenn Close. The film is interesting for the fans, but the general public will be too bothered by the incoherence of the story. “But hey,” Lila Wittenborn would say, “it doesn’t matter that much.”