Review of Starting Out in the Evening (2007) by Dizzymiss L — 10 Mar 2008

Everybody's raving about Frank Langella's Leonard Schiller, and rightly so; in this film he is engaging and curious.

However, a film cannot be carried by one actor, spectacular though he may be. The grad-student character in this film only had me convinced about half of the time. This is a serious misstep: this character in particular certainly needed to win the heart of the viewer in order for the film to succeed. It didn't.

There were moments in the film that shone tremendously, such as Schiller's musings on the state of the literary world. Other moments ranged from being flat to completely unecessary. The subplot involving Schiller's daughter, and its ensuing relational drama, felt awkward and misplaced.

This is, as a friend pointed out, a "literary film," and the dialogue follows suit. Because of this, I got the impression every now and then that the writer was thrilled by his own brilliance rather than thinking about what the characters themselves would say. What feels most real are the interactions between Schiller and his daughter--as opposed to Schiller and the grad student, the daughter and her lovers, etc.

What the film really left me wanting was an evening over tea with one of Schiller's books. Maybe the film will encourage a new breed of literary intellectuals. One can only hope...