Ann Lord is on her deathbed. The symptoms of her illness, or possibly the side effects of the drugs she is taking, include unreliable flashbacks to the '50s, and her best friend's wedding. Clever scripts use unreliable (witnesses, memories, flashbacks) to introduce twists and surprises, but this one doesn't. 'Evening' has been compared to Douglas Sirk's works, but the similarity is limited to the period and the setting amongst the rich and glossy. His powerful romances are not hobbled by having to return to the bedside every few minutes, nor are they made ridiculous with CGI moths and fireflies. They manage to tackle real issues and portray real feelings, even in unreal settings, just as grand opera does.
The large, mainly female cast includes some great names, and they all, both great and small, do their best with the thin material they have to work with. Meryl Streep has a cameo role and gets to deliver the line which might be this film's epigraph "Nothing is as important as we think it is." 'Evening' is not nearly as important as it thinks it is.
The large, mainly female cast includes some great names, and they all, both great and small, do their best with the thin material they have to work with. Meryl Streep has a cameo role and gets to deliver the line which might be this film's epigraph "Nothing is as important as we think it is." 'Evening' is not nearly as important as it thinks it is.