Expectations dim as ‘Evening’ unfolds

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In theaters

EVENING, directed by Lajos Koltai, written by Susan Minot and Michael Cunningham, based on Minot’s novel, 117 minutes, rated PG-13.

The new Lajos Koltai movie, “Evening,” is loosely based on the 1998 novel by Susan Minot, who lives in North Haven, from a screenplay Minot adapted with Michael Cunningham, who wrote the novel “The Hours,” which was successfully turned into the 2002 movie of the same name. Just as in that film, “Evening” touts the sort of cast that’s so revered, it tends to generate a groundswell of excitement.

The downside of that, of course, are the high expectations that go along with it.

Featured here are Vanessa Redgrave and her real-life daughter Natasha Richardson, Meryl Streep and her real-life daughter Mamie Gummer, Toni Collette, Claire Danes, Eileen Atkins and Glenn Close. Hardly a sorry bunch. Add to this mix Hugh Dancy and Patrick Wilson, and you have an intoxicating brew, so much so that going into the movie you think that with so much talent pressing for attention, certainly the film won’t be lacking in energy.

But it is. The movie is a long crawl toward death, literally, and while the acting can be very good, particularly in a scene Streep shares with Redgrave toward the end, only moments are remarkable. The film follows suit.

The movie stars Redgrave as Ann Lord, a 65-year-old woman dying of cancer who is stuck in bed for most of the film while her memory finds its footing and stumbles to the regret of a passion unfulfilled. Watching over her is a concerned nurse (Atkins) and Ann’s two daughters (Richardson and Collette), each of whom is working through her own issues while Ann drifts back to a time when, she murmurs, “Harris and I killed Buddy.”

Just how is revealed in an extended series of flashbacks that complicate the film unnecessarily, and which give all involved reasons to heave and sigh.

We meet Ann (played by Danes) in her youth. A singer from New York, she has traveled to Rhode Island (not to Maine, as in the book) to attend the wedding of her longtime friend, Lila Wittenborn (Gummer, whose resemblance to her mother is the most striking element of the movie). There, Ann meets Dr. Harris Arden (Wilson), with whom she has an affair that upsets the other man in her life, poor drunken Buddy (Dancy), a confused writer barely mentioned in the book whose sexuality becomes a plot point.

Casually, the movie swings through the decades, checking in with each of its characters as Koltai works overtime to sew up their stories and what they might mean at the end of one woman’s life.

Cunningham was charged with the job of rewriting a script Minot labored over, and so it was his hand that drew down the shade on what the book was, and thus what the movie could have become.

“Evening” is, in the end, a movie written by novelists who don’t want to succumb to the visual if it means sacrificing a single word. And yet they must. As such, the film is a fine example of what works within the pages of a book doesn’t necessarily work onscreen, particularly when the book in question is as dense as Minot’s, and apparently as fragile.

Grade: C+

On DVD

The home video unit of the BBC has been nailing it lately, with several releases worthy of note. The best of the lot is “A Bit of Fry & Laurie: The Complete Collection … Every Bit,” which gathers together all fours seasons of the popular sketch comedy starring Hugh Laurie of the Fox television series “House,” and Stephen Fry, who is best known for the movie “Wilde.”

Though the fourth season marks a more family-friendly shift in tone – and thus neuters the duo’s racy wit, which is unfortunate – the collection nevertheless is so good, it’s the week’s best new release.

Faring nearly as well is “Simon Schama’s Power of Art,” in which the Columbia University professor takes us through hourlong explorations of the works of Caravaggio, Bernini, Rothko, David, Turner, Van Gogh, Picasso and Rembrandt. While the latter three are the more predictable to explore, Schama does manage to build drama around them and their works in spite of their mainstream familiarity. His examination of other artists, such as Turner, proves more rewarding.

For instance, Schama notes about that artist: “We all think we know Turner, don’t we? He seems as comfortably British as a cup of tea. He is, after all, the National Gallery’s all-time favorite. But there is another Turner, a Turner you don’t know – a painter of chaos, conflagration and apocalypse.” Strong words, but Schama comes through with the goods.

If there’s a criticism of the set, it’s of Schama himself, who favors, shall we say, a heavy pen. His overwriting can put off an audience, but sift through the wordplay and the padding, and what you find is a mind bright with insight.

“Doctor Who: New Beginnings” also is available, with this particular set focused on Tom Baker leaving the role of Doctor to the much-younger Peter Davison, who assumes the part with ease. This three-disc set is filled with extras and features three stories – “Keeper of the Traken,” “Logopolis” and “Castrovalva” – all focused on the return of the Doctor’s nemesis, The Master (Anthony Ainley).

Finally, there’s the second season of “My Hero,” a clever Britcom that follows the tumultuous life of George Sunday (Ardal O’Hanlon), who leads a double life as a clueless health food store owner and as the superhero Thermoman from the planet Ultron. Along with his wife, Janet (Emily Joyce), these two must dodge their share of bullets, most of which stem from the monumental difficulty George has existing in a human world. His life, as a result, is one endearing blunder after another.

“Fry & Laurie” – A-; “Schama” – B+; “Doctor Who” – B; “Hero” – B

Visit www.weekinrewind.com, the archive of Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s reviews, which appear Mondays and Fridays in Lifestyle, weekends in Television as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at christopher@weekin

rewind.com.

THE VIDEO/DVD CORNER

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