Evening (2007)

A drama exploring the romantic past and emotional present of Ann Grant and her daughters, Constance and Nina. As Ann lays dying, she remembers, and is moved to convey to her daughters, the defining moments in her life 50 years prior, when she was a young woman. Harris is the man Ann loves in the 1950s and never forgets.

Director:

Lajos Koltai

Writers:

Susan Minot (screenplay), Michael Cunningham (screenplay),

Stars:

Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Claire Danes

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Claire Danes	...	Ann Grant
Toni Collette	...	Nina Mars
Vanessa Redgrave	...	Ann Lord
Patrick Wilson	...	Harris Arden
Hugh Dancy	...	Buddy Wittenborn
Natasha Richardson	...	Constance Haverford
Mamie Gummer	...	Lila Wittenborn
Eileen Atkins	...	The Night Nurse
Meryl Streep	...	Lila Ross
Glenn Close	...	Mrs. Wittenborn
Ebon Moss-Bachrach	...	Luc
Barry Bostwick	...	Mr. Wittenborn
David Furr	...	Ralph Haverford
Sarah Clements	...	Lizzie Tull (as Sarah Viccellio)
Cheryl Lynn Bowers	...	Peach Howze

Storyline

The 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. Overcome by the power of memory, Ann Lord reveals a long-held secret to her concerned daughters; Constance, a content wife and mother, and Nina, 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 as she journeys in her mind back to a summer weekend some fifty years before, when she was Ann Grant, 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. The bride-to-be is jittery, and turns to her maid of honor rather than her own mother for support. Ann stays close to her friend...

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Plot Keywords:

friend | love | wedding | night nurse | singer | 

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Taglines:

The greatest actresses of our time in one extraordinary movie

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements, sexual material, a brief accident scene and language

Details

Official Sites:

CMC Movie [Taiwan] Focus Features [United States]

Country:

USA Germany

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 June 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crépuscule

Filming Locations:

85th St. and West End Avenue, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

$3,501,971 (USA) (29 June 2007)

Gross:

$12,406,646 (USA) (27 July 2007)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hart-Sharp Entertainment, MBF Erste Filmproduktiongesellschaft, Twins Financing

Technical Specs

Runtime:

117 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital DTS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to The Hollywood Reporter (9/14/06): "director Jonathan Caouette (Tarnation (2003)) had been in preliminary discussions to direct, and Oscar-winning actress Ellen Burstyn was discussed for the lead role, but those deals never developed."

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Goofs

When Ann and Buddy dance around the house, the recording playing is sung by Michael Bublé, who would not have been born, much less been recorded at that time.

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Quotes

Lila Wittenborn: We are mysterious creatures, aren't we? And at the end so much of it turns out not to matter.

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Connections

Referenced in Jeopardy!: Episode #26.31 (2009)

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Soundtracks

I See the Moon
Traditional
Performed by Claire Danes

User Reviews

'Evening' Shines

Halfway through Lajos Koltai's "Evening," a woman on her deathbed asks a figure appearing in her hallucination: "Can you tell me where my life went?" The line could be embarrassingly theatrical, but the woman speaking it is Vanessa Redgrave, delivering it with utter simplicity, and the question tears your heart out.

Time and again, the film based on Susan Minot's novel skirts sentimentality and ordinariness, it holds attention, offers admirable performances, and engenders emotional involvement as few recent movies have. With only six months of the year gone, there are now two memorable, meaningful, worthwhile films in theaters, the other, of course, being Sara Polley's "Away from Her." Hollywood might have turned "Evening" into a slick celebrity vehicle with its two pairs of real-life mothers and daughters - Vanessa Redgrave and Natasha Richardson, and Meryl Streep and Mamie Gummer. Richardson is Redgrave's daughter in the film (with a sister played by Tony Collette), and Gummer plays Streep's younger self, while Redgrave's youthful incarnation is Claire Danes.

Add Glenn Close, Eileen Atkins, Hugh Dancy, Patrick Wilson, and a large cast - yes, it could have turned into a multiple star platform. Instead, Koltai - the brilliant Hungarian cinematographer of "Mephisto," and director of "Fateless" - created a subtle ensemble work with a "Continental feel," the story taking place in a high-society Newport environment, in the days leading up to a wedding that is fraught with trouble.

Missed connections, wrong choices, and dutiful compliance with social and family pressures present quite a soap opera, but the quality of the writing, Koltai's direction, and selfless acting raise "Evening" way above that level, into the the rarified air of English, French (and a few American) family sagas from a century before its contemporary setting.

Complex relationships between mothers and daughters, between friends and lovers, with the addition of a difficult triangle all come across clearly, understandably, captivatingly. Individual tunes are woven into a symphony.

And yet, with the all the foregoing emphasis on ensemble and selfless performances, the stars of "Evening" still shine through, Redgrave, Richardson, Gummer (an exciting new discovery, looking vaguely like her mother, but a very different actress), Danes carrying most of the load

• until Streep shows up in the final moments and, of course, steals the

show. Dancy and Wilson are well worth the price of admission too.

As with "Away from Her," "Evening" stays with you at length, inviting a re-thinking its story and characters, and re-experiencing the emotions it raises. At two hours, the film runs a bit long, but the way it stays with you thereafter is welcome among the many movies that go cold long before your popcorn.