VividSimon Simply Perfect

Lawbolisted Powerful

Intcatinfo A Masterpiece!

Calum Hutton It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Mohamed Salem Obada Evening of consciousness comes when one barely recalls how he or she considered his/her deed in a certain situation, and if recalled, one can barely distinguish the right deeds from the wrong ones. It transpires that we are "mysterious creatures", craving things that end up as totally unimportant to us. Evening of life comes when we stop caring for life, except when we see a flying butterfly. We begin to chase it as the epitome of life that we long forgot! The wedding song tells of a lover who rejoices in her beloved one hurrying to see her in the evening after his working day is over. May be one needs some fellow creature hurrying to see him/her in their evening of consciousness that is their evening of life. This is what occurs as Lila (Meryl Streep) visits her dying friend (Vanessa Redgrave) on her deathbed. Lajos Koltai made a wonderful movie. Scenery is amazing. Cadres are fantastical. It's the type of film that one wishes to see again and again. Thanks to the cast and crew. Lovely work of art.

jehaccess6 I have watched this movie three times. The last time, I kept skipping around confusing scenes to find resolution for the plot. Perhaps the plot is not intended to hang together logically. Or perhaps these rough spots are in the plot because Ann's recall of distant events is rather faulty.Take the young Ann Grant (Claire Danes). Here is a young woman who has attended an unnamed college with the scions of a rich family. She must have had help to afford this very expensive education, but never seems to have any family ties at all. She never seems to have any relatives she can turn to when the consequences of one of her disastrous decisions take effect.Ann shares an evening of passion with her great love Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson). Then, when Harris comforts Lila after the tragic death of her brother Buddy, Ann suddenly finds him repulsive and is disgusted with her own behavior. I must have missed something significant here. Ann's behavior seems totally inexplicable. Ann abandons her relationship with Harris and eventually marries one of the groomsmen at Lila's wedding. Despite Ann's rejection of Harris, she continues to hold deep feelings for him on her deathbed.It was obvious from his behavior that Harris was deeply smitten with Ann and would have gladly married her. A scene showing their chance meeting years after Lila's wedding showed that Harris still had deep feelings for Ann.The film showed a pattern for Ann's romantic relationships. She always had a falling out with her men and she rejected them. This pattern held with Harris and two husbands. In contrast, Lila married a man she did not love and she remained with her husband until he died. Perhaps Lila was able to build a relationship because she refused to let her marriage fail.Then came the too convenient reappearance of Lila Ross at Ann's bedside. Apparently Ann's nurse was able to extract enough information from Ann's last few lucid moments to identify and contact Lila. None of this communication appeared on the film.I kept wondering about the house Ann was living in during her final days. How did she afford to buy such a house on the meager earnings of her singing career? Ann always seemed one step ahead of financial disaster while raising her two daughters.On another level, I enjoyed the film's setting and music immensely. The seaside mansion was just so heartbreakingly beautiful. Claire Danes was luminous as the young Ann Grant. She is really quite a talented singer. I much prefer her natural brunette to the bottle blonde look she had in the film extras. If only those pesky CGI fireflies would go away, I could raise the movie a whole point in my vote!

robert-temple-1 Cinematographer Lajos Koltai (who filmed Szabo's 'Being Julia' of 2004) here enters the grandmaster category of great directors, and has made a masterpiece. This film also contains one of the finest performances of Vanessa Redgrave ever filmed. She may be one of the world's leading actresses, but here she goes even beyond that. Never has anyone conveyed so much while lying asleep in bed, or oozed such strong atmosphere from beneath closed eyelids. She really is supernatural. Meryl Streep in her cameo appearance, and Glenn Close in a supporting role with minimal dialogue also exude all the power of Olympian goddesses, and dominate the screen with every flicker of an eyelash, riveting our attention with all the things they don't say but are thinking. The film's younger actresses, no matter how well they do (and they do very well) cannot but be eclipsed by these titans! However, the one young actor whose work is as intense and powerful as those Queens of the Screen is the amazing Hugh Dancy, who gives them a run for their money. He is so brilliant as a feckless, hopelessly disturbed and agonised young man that one fears for him offscreen! (That's a joke, I've met him and he's really perfectly normal.) Patrick Wilson as Harris also does superbly. Everybody is good. This is a total success. The film is extraordinarily profound, takes its time (like Visconti), and probes the regions of memory, the borderlines of death (Eileen Atkins as a night nurse who doubles as an angel is extraordinary, and her costume works, which is even more remarkable), and the gap between the generations. Lost love, failed hopes, wasted lives, and above all the tragic interventions of Fate, it's all there. What a melodrama! But this is too sophisticated for people who watch TV soaps, it is really very highbrow, ultra-sensitive, and frankly is Great Art. In the future, when people make lists of classics of the screen for the first decade of this century, this film will be there.

Spaceygirl The best thing about 'Evening' is Hugh Dancy and Patrick Wilson, both terrific actors, Dancy pitch perfect as an American . In fact, the youthful ensemble are universally appealing, Clare Danes and Mamie Gummer putting in affecting performances of life-long best friends. Toni Collete and Natasha Richardson play off well against each other as sisters, but it is Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep in one scene that steal the show.What lets the movie down,however, is the script. Veering between over- dramatic and mawkishly sentimental it lets its outstanding cast down with every line. The settingis lovely though and the scenery gorgeous.