Evening Hughs - A Short Movie Review

Evening
Directed by Lajos Koltai

Think mostly rich white folks hanging out on the Atlantic coast in period garb. Retold by an old lady to her modern day daughters on her deathbed. I know. I'm asleep already. Still, I wanted to see Evening because I'm a sucker for huge casts and this one gathers some of the finest actresses still working today.

Still, considering the movie includes Vanessa Redgrave, Eileen Atkins, Glenn Close, Meryl Streep and the new wave of great actresses Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Natasha Richardson (Vanessa Redgrave's real life daughter playing her daughter in the film), and Mamie Gummer (Meryl Streep's real life daughter playing herself in the past).

Plus it stars the darling Patrick Wilson (together again with Claire Danes who are so cute together in that gap commercial (see below)). All these great actors. Yet Hugh Dancy walks away with the film, stealing every scene he's in and essentially becoming the only character I really cared about.

I love Toni Collette but I could have done without the entire modern day sequences. Ann (Vanessa Redgrave now, Claire Danes before) drones about "Harris" but Patrick Wilson's Harris is given very little to do, other than stand there and be upstanding. Mamie Gummer is such an eerie copy of her mom Meryl Streep, and acts with a nice subtlety, still, Meryl's older version of the character Lyla didn't seem to match.

This may have been too much of a chick flick, even for me, because I came out of it going: "That was it?" "Wait. What was the big secret?" "That was it?". All I grew out of this film was a new love for Hugh Dancy.

Evening = C+ or a 6.5/10

Meanwhile, here is Patrick Wilson and Claire Danes in that adorable Gap commercial: