The Phoenix Network:
 
 
About  |  Advertise
Adult  |  Moonsigns  |  Band Guide  |  Blogs  |  In Pictures
 
Features  |  Reviews
FIND MOVIES
Find a Movie
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Evening

 Platitudes and mediocrity
By PETER KEOUGH  |  July 3, 2007
1.0 1.0 Stars

inside_eveniingtoni
EVENING: Good actresses with bad taste.

Some of the best actresses working in movies today pack the cast of Evening, Lajos Koltai’s adaptation of the Susan Minot novel, and all I can say is, was this the best thing available? Or do they just have bad taste? Sometimes the drugs send terminally ill Ann (Vanessa Redgrave) into flights of fancy in which she chases after a butterfly or a night nurse dressed like a fairy godmother. Or, with metronomic regularity, Ann slips into a flashback (as Claire Danes?) to a fateful wedding in Newport 50 years ago. Her condition fuels the conflict between smugly settled Constance (Natasha Richardson) and independent loser Nina (Toni Collette). By the time Meryl Streep shows up to add some dignity, the platitudes have taken over, as in, “There are no mistakes.” Such as Nina’s unwanted pregnancy, after which she learns that happiness means embracing mediocrity, marrying the boy who knocked you up, and raising more fucked-up children like yourself.
Related: The girls of summer, Randy, Spring break, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Movies, Meryl Streep,  More more >
  • Share:
  • Share this entry with Facebook
  • Share this entry with Digg
  • Share this entry with Delicious
  • RSS feed
  • Email this article to a friend
  • Print this article
Comments

Today's Event Picks
ARTICLES BY PETER KEOUGH
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   REVIEW: UP IN THE AIR  |  December 01, 2009
    No director pulls off the bait-and-switch as craftily as Jason Reitman. He gets you thinking that you're watching a hip, caustic comedy subverting the status quo, but by the end, he's vindicated all the platitudes he seemed to scorn.
  •   REVIEW: Z (1969)  |  December 01, 2009
    John F. Kennedy wasn't the only political leader murdered in 1963. On May 22 of that year, Gregoris Lambrakis, a left-leaning, pacifist member of the Greek parliament and an aspiring presidential candidate seeking to replace the reigning right-wing government, was assaulted after a peace rally in Thessaloniki. He died five days later.
  •   REVIEW: BAD LIEUTENANT: PORT OF CALL NEW ORLEANS  |  November 24, 2009
    Nicolas Cage is at his best in Bad Lieutenant
  •   REVIEW: THE ROAD  |  November 24, 2009
    John Hillcoat doesn't stray from Cormac McCarthy's Road For those who found the Coen Brothers' adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men too lighthearted, John Hillcoat's relentlessly faithful version of the author's post-apocalyptic Pulitzer-winning novel might hit the spot.
  •   INTERVIEW: NICOLAS CAGE  |  November 24, 2009
    "When people like to label any kind of performance as over the top, I suggest that if you were to go to the Guggenheim and look at a Francis Bacon, would you call that over the top?"

 See all articles by: PETER KEOUGH

MOST POPULAR
RSS Feed of for the most popular articles
 Most Viewed   Most Emailed 



  |  Sign In  |  Register
 
thePhoenix.com:
Phoenix Media/Communications Group:
TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
Copyright © 2009 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group