Review of Evening (2007) by Tay W — 02 Mar 2009

There was so much I wanted to dislike about this movie- more than anything I wanted an epic life story of the rise and fall of the character of Ann. But this is the story of one evening, and how it affected the rest of her life- her relationships, her passions, her parenthood, her regrets. We are dropped into this moment in her life and come to realize that whatever else she becomes, it stems from this one evening.

Meryl Streep and real life daughter Mamie Gummer are both terrific support for the story and for each other, and Vanessa Redgrave is wonderful. The modern story and its subplots (with Redgrave's daughter Natasha Richardson and Collette) are less interesting, but ultimately important for the theme.

I read this book, and the paper version was filled with one dimensional characters and a setting that was impossible to picture. The film improves on both accounts by giving us characters we identify with and beautiful visuals. The icing on this cake is Kaczmarek's score. Just love it for the moment of life it shows.