Review of Evening (1966) by Cameron J — 08 Sep 2013

"Help, I'm steppin' into the 'Twilight' zone; this place is a madhouse, it feels like being cloned!" Sorry, teenaged boys, but no one can help you from being dragged by your girlfriends to see this film... and apparently feel like you're being cloned, whatever in the world that means, George Kooymans. So yeah, this film may be about as dull as something like "Lords of Dogtown", but this teen drama isn't quite as cool, and yet, Catherine Hardwicke had to go the way of a vampire and sell her soul to the Devil, or rather, the more horrifying monstrosity that is the commercial young adult film industry in order to make some blasted money, which isn't to say that she's the only one involved in this film who needed this project to get some kind of overdue attention. This isn't exactly as exciting as you might expect from a film featuring Salvador Dalí as a vampire, but hey, it's about as gay as "Little Ashes", and if you don't get that, well, leave feeling bad to Robert Pattinson, because this is the closest thing he's gotten to a widely watched artistic film that he actually leads in, and all they ask him to do acting-wise is look dazed and confused. Man, high school girls, [u]they[/u] keep getting older and [u]he[/u] stays the same age, yes he does, yes he does, but that shall not stop this match made in, well, the Underworld or something. I guess between the Bible and this book, the middle-aged housewives of today are going to stick with the Godless, supernatural creature lusting over a teenaged emo girl, just because it's a wuv stowy, but hey, if this film is more absurd than the Bible, then it's not by a considerable margin, so I can let that go, at least up to a point. Yeah, this isn't exactly my cup of tea, because, like the Bible, this thing has some questionable aspects, and yet, it could be worse, - you know, like its sequel or something - and it would be were it not for some undeniable strengths.

A very commercial piece of young adult fluff, this film features a very contemporaneous soundtrack that could be worse, and is often fitting, but still kind of weak, and when it comes to Carter Burwell's score, there are some flat spots, but on the whole, Burwell's touches have a certain perk that livens up the handful of moments in the final product that aren't considerably bland, and sometimes marries with a kind of whimsy in a way that further flavors things up, while complimenting tone about as much as the perhaps even imperfect photographic touches. The film's visual style is driven by an ice-cold color, and such a look often falls flat, with occasions of being repelling, so on a photographic level, this effort doesn't go that far, at least on the whole, because there are moments in which cinematographer Elliot Davis hits the lighting just right in order to deliver on rather striking, maybe even downright lovely imagery. Even on a stylistic level, this film offers hardly anything special, but when highlights in style come into play, the aesthetic are bound to find difficulty in denying them, as surely as many are bound to find difficulty in denying some highlights in this story concept, no matter how much they may try. Oh, make no mistake, Stephanie Meyer's popular story is a mess, and I will touch more upon that later, though on paper, this film has some potential, featuring subject matter that may be interpreted in a formulaic fashion, but has a certain uniqueness to it that augments the limited amount of intrigue, which is, of course, further punched up by what is actually done sort of well in the execution of this messy, but reasonably promising story. There are more than a few bland characters in this story, and some of the performances don't really help, as the antagonists' portrayers ranging from mediocre to just about laughable, and leading lady Kristen Stewart doesn't exactly feature the charisma to carry a character study this messy for very long, but there are some decent beats in the acting department that breathe life into what conceptually effective elements there are to characterization, - with Billy Burke charismatically capturing the role of an estranged struggling to reconnect with her daughter, while Robert Pattinson actually proves to be subtly effective at times in his portrayal of a man who is anything but normal and goes smitten by a relatively normal girl whose knowledge of his dark secrets could put her in danger - and when it comes to Catherine Hardwicke's offscreen performance, it truly undercuts the final product and drives it into mediocrity, yet it still has some inspired occasions that give you glimpses of what could have been: a decent drama. Sure, you're usual drama kind of strives to be more than just simply decent, but hey, I did, in fact, like some moments in this film, as well as consistent aspects, and no matter how much some people might want to hear me gripe and complain about how considerably this "effort" falls flat, while we're certainly not looking at a film that is likable on the whole, the final product comes close to decent. Alas, when it's all said and done, while this film doesn't fall as far as the anti-"Twilight" fad may lead you to believe, highlights go outmatched by enough lowlights to make a pretty mediocre film, so much so that even the originality factor that this story sort of has going for it is limited.

Like I said, there are aspects to Stephanie Meyer's story concept that are genuinely unique, or at least kind of refreshing, but when you get down to the more extensive aspects of plot structuring, this is a pretty formulaic young adult melodrama, with a wealth of tropes that allow the opportunity to soak up the elements in Meyer's story that aren't even all that intriguing, due to a thinness in dramatic weight that would perhaps be more effective if tone wasn't so unevenly handled. Now, as I said, there are limitations to the intrigue of this drama, even on paper, so it's not like there's all that much meat to handle messily, but when this film leaps between fluff - maybe even comic relief - and darkness, - maybe even a certain gothic brood - it has a tendency to jar, often offputtingly, and sometimes glaringly, though perhaps this film's tonal layering would feel more sloppy if it wasn't at least consistent in cheesiness. Look, I'm not saying that this film doesn't have its cornily incompetent elements to it, but for goodness' sake, even the visual effects fall flat, sometimes aggravatingly, and if this teeny melodrama can't keep cheesiness out of its technical value, it hardly stands a chance of cleansing substance of much too much fluff, and sure enough, Melissa Rosenberg turns in a messy script, with consistently fall-flat comic relief, as well as many a dialogue fault which ranges from rather unnerving to, well, near-embarrassing, and exacerbates the harsh sting of the overwhelming melodrama that drives a narrative that is, in many places, pretty questionable by its own right. There are some key plotting elements that are fairly forced-feeling, and quite frankly, for that matter, the idea of a story about a vampire falling in love with some random teenaged girl is kind of silly to begin with, and would need to be handled pretty well for you to buy into it, at least enough to submit an adequate degree of your investment, something that is hardly sustained as frequently as it probably should be, because in spite of some highlights in storytelling, a generic and cheesy approach is not the way to go about handling this questionable story concept by any means, let alone for so long. At about two hours, this film isn't that long, but for a drama this relatively thin in weight, let me tell you, that is much too long, and Rosenberg's faulty script makes sure that you don't forget that, getting excessive with material, even filler, to the point of repetition that, before you know it, devolves into all-out aimlessness. As predictable as this melodrama may be, it gets to be kind of hard to see where exactly this narrative is heading, and that dulls things down enough on paper, without limp atmospheric pacing by director Catherine Hardwicke, inspired by a blandly dry and often even quiet atmosphere that isn't necessarily thoughtful, but lazy, with a lack of inspiration that is, as I said, sometimes broken by a genuine directorial effectiveness, but generally stands firm, creating an emotional distance that, as you can imagine, strong emphasizes the other shortcomings of the final product, of which there are oh so many. Now, plenty of the missteps found throughout this messy flick aren't as glaring as many are saying they are, and the strengths, while not considerable, still stand as difficult to deny, maybe even kind of endearing, so the film comes to the brink of decency, yet it just doesn't quite make it through, because while there is some potential here, it is ultimately undercut by cheesy and under-inspired filmmaking that emphasizes the natural shortcomings, until the final product falls flat as forgettable and mediocre.

Overall, there are appealing, maybe even effective moments in Carter Burwell's whimsical score and Elliot Davis' chilling cinematography, as well as some intrigue to a, in some places, refreshing story concept that is carried about as much as it can be by a few good performances - particularly that of an underappreciated Robert Pattinson - and some highlights in direction, thus leaving the final product to come close to decency, but not so close that formulaic, thin and even uneven areas in plotting, glaring cheesiness within the technical value, dialogue and melodrama, aimlessness in narrative, and blanding lack of inspiration in direction don't prove to be enough to drive Catherine Hardwicke's interpretation of Stephanie Meyer's "Twilight" into mediocrity as a forgettable piece of teen fare that seems to have simply gotten lucky.

2.25/5 - Mediocre.