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Movie Review for Evening
Movie Review for
Evening
111 Reviews total.
Release date: 6/29/2007
Run length: Unknown.
Categories:
Drama
,
Romance
,
Adaptation
Summary:
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 ago, 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, yet is even closer to Lila's irrepressible brother Buddy. Unexpected feelings surge forth once Ann meets wedding guest Harris Arden, a lifelong friend and intimate of the Wittenborn family. Ann's love for Harris will change her life, and those of her daughters, forever.
Reviews of Evening
By
Marcy Dermansky
of About.com (8/0)
Not see Evening? It's like having to say no to a Jane Austen adaptation.
By
Brian Webster
of Apollo Guide (8/0)
While it teeters on the brink of mawkish melodrama for quite some time, this film ultimately deli...
By
Philip Martin
of Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (7/0)
While it's considerably entertaining, it's also a load of prattle.
By
Christy Lemire
of Associated Press (8/0)
Mostly Evening feels draggy and repetitive as it wallows self-consciously in its own sense of emo...
By
Chris Kaltenbach
of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
The acting, by any measure, is superb.
By
Laura Bushell
of BBC (7/0)
Evening is a slow burner, so slow in fact the credits roll before it ever gets going.
Reviews of Evening
By
Wesley Morris
of Boston Globe (8/0)
Whatever Evening is saying about life, death, and guilt isn't terribly new or interesting...
By
Daniel Etherington
of Channel 4 Film (7/0)
Dull. It's hard to engage with the characters, the themes are underdeveloped and the tone is flat...
By
Roger Ebert
of Chicago Sun-Times (8/0)
There are few things more depressing than a weeper that doesn't make you weep.
By
Jessica Reaves
of Chicago Tribune (8/0)
If you've not read Susan Minot's 1998 bestseller Evening, you will be happily oblivious to the mo...
By
Peter Rainer
of Christian Science Monitor (8/0)
A dreary mood romance that flashes back and forth between present day and 50 years ago.
By
Jeffrey Overstreet
of Christianity Today (8/0)
Evening feels artificial from the very first shot. ... It looks like a contest to see which actre...
Reviews of Evening
By
Nick Schager
of Cinematical (8/0)
A weepie examination of female and sexual identity whose worth is roughly equal to that of a used...
By
Mark Palermo
of Coast (Halifax, Nova Scotia) (8/0)
Evening's take on defining life choices reveals its manic depressive nature.
By
Edward Douglas
of ComingSoon.net (8/0)
It's aggravating to know how much better this would have worked as a stageplay, because sitting t...
By
Matt Brunson
of Creative Loafing (7/0)
That's not to say that Evening is a turkey, but rather a delicate canary that never really finds ...
By
David Edwards
of Daily Mirror [UK] (7/0)
Evening is a film about regrets that doesnt say an awful lot, but somehow holds your attention w...
By
Jeff Vice
of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (8/0)
This leaden adaptation, which was co-written by Minot and Michael Cunningham, is so full of force...
Reviews of Evening
By
Scott Weinberg
of DVDTalk.com (7/0)
Frankly I could watch Danes, Collette, Streep, Close, Richardson, etc., as they go food shopping,...
By
Matt Stevens
of E! Online (8/0)
...this disappointing drama packs in too many characters, too many talky scenes, too many flashba...
By
Erik Childress
of eFilmCritic.com (8/0)
Easily the most insufferable film experience in a year that has already given us Wild Hogs, The H...
By
Angie Errigo
of Empire Magazine (7/0)
This multi-generational chick flick may be blessed with a stellar cast but unfortunately errs on ...
By
Lisa Schwarzbaum
of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
...for all the creaminess of the sets and costumes, every character talks as if she is still made...
By
Eric D. Snider
of EricDSnider.com (8/0)
It's the kind of female-centric syrup that isn't conceived creatively so much as it's calculated ...
Reviews of Evening
By
Nathaniel Rogers
of Film Experience (8/0)
At first you can't believe that so much talent has been assembled. But by the end of this deathbe...
By
Sean O'Connell
of filmcritic.com (7/0)
features Acting with a capital "A," pulled off by serious thespians putting years of training to ...
By
Victoria Alexander
of FilmsInReview.com (8/0)
A bore. I kept saying to myself: "Die already!"
By
Kevin Biggers
of FilmStew.com (8/0)
Vanessa Redgrave pursuing a poorly CGI-ed butterfly, with this incredibly idiotic look on her fac...
By
Nigel Andrews
of Financial Times (7/0)
I am against the exploitation of women for sentimental screen purposes (Steel Magnolias, Crimes o...
By
MaryAnn Johanson
of Flick Filosopher (7/0)
Bittersweet and deeply, achingly romantic, this perfect, perfect film... enfolds regrets and memo...
Reviews of Evening
By
Peter Canavese
of Groucho Reviews (8/0)
From its laughably lyrical opening to its bow-tying resolution, Lajos Koltai's Evening invites co...
By
Peter Bradshaw
of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
An affected and overwrought adaptation of Susan Minot's novel about a dying woman's memories of a...
By
Kirk Honeycutt
of Hollywood Reporter (8/0)
In Evening, an all-star team of filmmakers takes on a minor-league story.
By
Amy Biancolli
of Houston Chronicle (8/0)
Everything about Evening seems engineered to liquefy moviegoers, specifically middle-age female m...
By
Great Gatsby
of Jam! Movies (8/0)
Koltai literalizes the symbolism and drowns everything in a sappy, overpowering score; the charac...
By
Liz Braun
of Jam! Movies (8/0)
Its all terribly Great Gatsby, and fun to watch.
Reviews of Evening
By
James Sanford
of Kalamazoo Gazette (7/0)
an 'if only I had...' nostalgic romance... even the appealing performances of Danes, Wilson and G...
By
Ella Taylor
of L.A. Weekly (8/0)
As the cautionary tale of mothers and daughters it negligently aspires to be, Evening is strictly...
By
Prairie Miller
of Long Island Press (8/0)
The stellar inter-generational cast can't breathe sufficient life into this airless female angst ...
By
Glenn Whipp
of Los Angeles Daily News (8/0)
Woman on deathbed dredges up regrets, as does everyone around her in a turgid weeper that will en...
By
Carina Chocano
of Los Angeles Times (8/0)
Evening, despite its fine source material and roster of formidable talent, lurches clumsily acros...
By
Mark Dujsik
of Mark Reviews Movies (7/0)
It's quite an achievement to get such a group of esteemed actresses together for something of suc...
Reviews of Evening
By
Matt Pais
of Metromix.com (8/0)
The epitome of artsy-fartsy twinkling that doesn't actually shine a light on anything.
By
Duane Dudek
of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (8/0)
Even the film's obvious and shallow moments appear haunting, evocative and profound when filtered...
By
Ken Hanke
of Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (7/0)
Evening is not without interest. The problem is that most of the interest stems from the inevitab...
By
Ted Murphy
of Murphy's Movie Reviews (7/0)
While overall EVENING doesn't quite reach the heights it should, it is well worth while, if for n...
By
David Edelstein
of New York Magazine (8/0)
It works on paper, but [author Susan] Minot, who shares credit for the adaptation with fellow nov...
By
David Edelstein
of New York Magazine (8/0)
It works on paper, but [author Susan] Minot, who shares credit for the adaptation with fellow nov...
Reviews of Evening
By
Andrew Sarris
of New York Observer (8/0)
The novel is too dense, too multilayered, too overpopulated to make a satisfactory film that is a...
By
Kyle Smith
of New York Post (8/0)
I've seen more grace and subtlety from a cat tossed into a swimming pool.
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (8/0)
...proves that not every book deserves its own film.
By
Manohla Dargis
of New York Times (8/0)
Proves that not every book deserves its own film.
By
David Denby
of New Yorker (8/0)
This is one of the rare movies that are too sensitive for their own good.
By
Gene Seymour
of Newsday (8/0)
Director Lajos Koltai's generous application of luminous color tones over everything can't concea...
Reviews of Evening
By
Brian Orndorf
of OhmyNews.com (7/0)
Evening is melodrama with the brake lines slashed -- a curiously dreary installment of the "Who H...
By
Jason Ferguson
of Orlando Weekly (8/0)
A substantial and engrossing film.
By
Dennis Schwartz
of Ozus' World Movie Reviews (7/0)
It suffocates in all its blue-blooded proprieties and cloying sentimentalities.
By
Carrie Rickey
of Philadelphia Inquirer (8/0)
Evening might be the most shocking waste of natural resources since the despoiling of the Amazon ...
By
Jon Popick
of Planet Sick-Boy (7/0)
The cinematic equivalent of repeated punches to the kidneys.
By
Linda Cook
of Quad City Times (Davenport, IA) (7/0)
It's a good-intentioned but bland "Evening" out.
Reviews of Evening
By
Timothy Knight
of Reel.com (7/0)
Danes, radiant with intelligence, warmth and common sense, captures your heart. Sadly, the same c...
By
Michelle Orange
of Reeler (8/0)
All emotion registers as melodrama, though the flushed and flustered parts do not cohere into a m...
By
James Berardinelli
of ReelViews (8/0)
The strength of the screenplay and acting provide a satisfying, although not overwhelming, two ho...
By
Diana Saenger
of ReviewExpress.com (8/0)
While the all-star cast is a major draw to this story, director Lajos Koltai falls more on his fo...
By
Peter Travers
of Rolling Stone (8/0)
Susan Minots resplendent novel of a dying woman, Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave), remembering her de...
By
Carla Meyer
of Sacramento Bee (7/0)
The tone, in turn, moves from arch to soapy to poignant. Yet it's the story that one can never qu...
Reviews of Evening
By
Jim Lane
of Sacramento News & Review (7/0)
...interesting without being compelling...
By
Andrew O'Hehir
of Salon.com (7/1)
In its pursuit of superior craftsmanship and high-minded lyricism, Evening constantly risks slidi...
By
Sean Means
of Salt Lake Tribune (8/0)
While all of that modern commentary and magical realism may work in Minot's novel, on film it fee...
By
Larry Ratliff
of San Antonio Express-News (7/0)
It's just a shame Danes and the others are working with one arm tied behind them, so to speak, du...
By
David Elliott
of San Diego Union-Tribune (8/0)
Evening reaches for depth, at times plodding, never cloddish. The lessons about choice and loss a...
By
Mick LaSalle
of San Francisco Chronicle (8/0)
Ultimately, Evening achieves a kind of wisdom, though it's a strange and bitter wisdom.
Reviews of Evening
By
Sean Axmaker
of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (8/0)
... so distanced from the emotions of the story that it never breathes on its own.
By
Moira MacDonald
of Seattle Times (8/0)
Though the filmmaking is uneven, Evening redeems itself in its marvelous cast, which echoes the m...
By
Rich Cline
of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
An astounding cast and high production values make this film worth seeing, even as turns into a g...
By
Elliott Noble
of Sky Movies (7/0)
Recycling ideas and characters from 250 years of romantic literature without adding any new ones ...
By
Ed Gonzalez
of Slant Magazine (8/0)
Like Stephen Daldry's The Hours, Evening's pseudo-intellectual tone hardly disguises its presumpt...
By
The Hours
of Slant Magazine (8/0)
Even the lineup of superlative thesps can't mask the pandering, manipulative ploys at the film's ...
Reviews of Evening
By
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat
of Spirituality and Practice (8/0)
A psychologically rich drama dealing with the matters of the heart we must face as we swing from ...
By
Neil Smith
of thelondonpaper (7/0)
An old lady takes a long time to die in this po-faced literary effort as a bed-ridden Redgrave lo...
By
Dustin Putman
of TheMovieBoy.com (8/0)
For a movie that begins on such shaky footing, Evening packs an impassioned wallop by the end.
By
Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone
of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
The movie plays out slowly, but it's not an action movie, so that's okay. It's all about emotions...
By
Derek Malcolm
of This is London (7/0)
The performances are oddly muted, as if the screenplay refuses to allow a fine cast full rein. Bu...
By
Amy Simmons
of Time Out (4/3)
The film disintegrates into an indulgent succession of intense, fawning exchanges that overwhelm ...
Reviews of Evening
By
Tom Beer
of Time Out (8/0)
The film never descends into the dreaded bath of sentimental kitsch.
By
Tony Medley
of Tolucan Times (8/0)
Even though this looks like the quintessential chick flick, my message to men is: don't avoid th...
By
Rob Salem
of Toronto Star (7/0)
Evening's visual period splendour, its vivid characterizations and their comfortably clichd rela...
By
Carmen Grey
of Total Film (7/0)
Adapting from Susan Minots bestseller, Hungarian director Lajos Koltais (Fateless) pulls togeth...
By
Ken Fox
of TV Guide's Movie Guide (8/0)
Screenwriters Susan Minot and fellow novelist Michael Cunningham make key changes to Minot's accl...
By
Urban Cinefile Critics
of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
This is a film full of meaningful aspirations and although it tries to convince us in the end tha...
Reviews of Evening
By
Claudia Puig
of USA Today (8/0)
...tedious and uninvolving.
By
Justin Chang
of Variety (8/0)
A woman's deathbed reveries provide a poignant but rather obvious counterpoint to her daughters' ...
By
Matthew Turner
of ViewLondon (7/0)
Emotionally unengaging, overlong and frequently dull drama, despite the best efforts of its talen...
By
Willie Waffle
of WaffleMovies.com (7/0)
tries to be a weeper, but it is more of a snorer
By
Ann Hornaday
of Washington Post (8/0)
Evening is a terribly refined, painstakingly composed study in aristocratic angst that audiences ...
By
Susan Granger
of www.susangranger.com (8/0)
Despite the intriguing casting, this stultified generational drama fades into a luminous meditati...
Reviews of Evening
By
John Beifuss
of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
The handsome period design strives for authenticity, yet when the wedding party listens to a reco...
By
Chris Hewitt (St. Paul)
of St. Paul Pioneer Press (5/5) Login Required (Login Required)
Evening is a very pretty, very bad movie.
By
Richard Nilsen
of Arizona Republic (7/1) No reference
A collection of Lifetime-channel clichs arranged with the metallic precision of a machine.
By
Christopher Smith
of Bangor Daily News (Maine) (6/1) No reference
The film is a fine example of what works within the pages of a book doesn't necessarily work onsc...
By
Adam Graham
of Detroit News (7/1) No reference
It courts its audience with a warm story about lost loves and paths not chosen, and it boasts an ...
By
Anthony Quinn
of Independent (3/4) No reference
Some big names have been assembled for this old-fashioned "woman's picture" about thwarted expect...
Reviews of Evening
By
Robert W. Butler
of Kansas City Star (6/2) No reference
Evening wants desperately to be The Hours. Better luck next time.
By
Monisha Rajesh
of Little White Lies (3/4) No reference
It's a very odd film that can discuss heart-blackening guilt, loveless marriage, pain and regret ...
By
Jeff Strickler
of Minneapolis Star Tribune (6/2) No reference
Boasting an ensemble of Hollywood's best actresses, this drama is unabashedly sentimental but sti...
By
Mike Russell
of Oregonian (7/1) No reference
The uneven filmmaking renders Minot's ideas impossibly trite. ...Ugh.
By
Roger Moore
of Orlando Sentinel (7/1) No reference
Evening could've been something precious. But it never rises above standard-issue 'chick flick'.
By
Evening's
of Toronto Star (6/2) No reference
Great cast, mediocre writing.
Reviews of Evening
By
Harvey S. Karten
of Compuserve (7/1) Not Reachable
Solid performances allow 'Evening' to transcend the label 'chick-flick' as a woman on her deathbe...
By
Connie Ogle
of Miami Herald (7/1) Not Reachable
Manipulative at times, but it resonates with gleaming ferocity as it unspools a story of regret, ...
By
Frank Swietek
of One Guy's Opinion (7/1) Not Reachable
While it showcases some fine performers, it unfortunately has a stiflingly literary tone.
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