Great Film overall

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I can't believe I sat for two hours to learn I shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes.

My wife and I watched this movie at home on DVD from our public library.I don't usually seek out movies I missed when they were fresh but lately we have been watching the TV series "Homeland" and being impressed with Claire Danes in it I decided to look up her movies we might have missed, and this is one.The story starts in present time, which I suppose was the early 2000s, when the central character Ann is in old age and nearing death. The whole movie is her remembering the past and present issues her two daughters are dealing with. So it is presented as a back-N-forth, showing scenes of the 1950s then showing present day. It is very effective and we get to know Ann and those important in her life.There is a Harris she mentions in her delirium, those around her are not sure Harris was real. Until an old friend, played by Meryl Streep, shows up and explains Harris, played by Patrick Wilson in the 1950s. She and he had a thing briefly, did she regret that it didn't come to fruition?The story wants to make the point that life is NOT about missed opportunities and/or mistakes, life is about what you actually experience and where it takes you. No regrets.The central character is played by Claire Danes as the younger Ann and by Vanessa Redgrave as the older Ann. It a very nice touch one of Ann's daughters was played by Natasha Richardson who is Redgrave's real life daughter. Also Streep and her daughter played the older and younger versions of the same character. Great cast, good movie, sort of like reading a novel but over a 2-hour time period.

A stellar cast, consisting of Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Natasha Richardson, Glenn Close and Meryl Streep, is reason enough for watching "Evening," one of those high-toned, slightly stuffy, intergenerational family dramas that is all about lost loves, wasted lives and missed opportunities, this time among the champagne-sipping upper crust of Newport, Rhode island.Redgrave stars as Ann Grant, a terminally ill woman whose dementia is leading her to reveal secrets on her deathbed that have been locked away in her memory for years. Collette and Richardson play her two adult daughters who are able to glean only a few tantalizing nuggets about their mother's past as they emerge randomly and still partially obscured from the fog of her delirium. These scenes set in the present are intercut with those from the past, the 1950's in fact, when a young Ann (now played by Danes) fell in love with Harris (Patrick Wilson), the servant of her best friend, Lila (Mamie Gummer, who looks for all the world like a young Meryl Streep, who indeed steps in as Lila for the present scenes). Lila also happens to be in love with Harris, but she is instead marrying Karl (Timothy Kiefler), mainly because his aristocratic pedigree mixes better with her family's blue blood (echoes of the much-better "Atonement" abound throughout). Further complicating matters is Lila's kid brother, Buddy (Hugh Dancy), who appears to be in love with both Ann and Harris at one and the same time.Needless to say, much of this plays like a tony, high-class soap opera, but at least two of the characters manage to rise above the suds and fully engage our interest: Colette's Nina, whose paralyzing fear of commitment and of making life-altering mistakes threatens to leave her a bitter, lonely woman; and Dancy's Buddy, whose conflicted sexuality brings an unforeseen complexity and depth to the character. Most of the rest of the characters are considerably less interesting, including Ann (both the one in the present and the one in the past) whose personal revelations are supposed to be the glue holding this overpopulated story together. Harris is a particularly bland and uncharismatic figure for a man who is supposed to be such an irresistible magnetic attraction for at least three of the principal characters in the story.The burden of transferring Susan Manot's novel to the screen has fallen on the shoulders of director Lajos Koltai, whose metier seems to consist primarily of pretty landscapes, dusky lighting and tinkling pianos. And yet, amid all the soap opera trappings, the movie has some important things to say about not just letting go of the past but of having the courage to move into the future."Evening" is decidedly a mixed bag as far as movie-making and drama go, but the powerhouse performances (particularly by Collette, Richardson, Redgrave and Dancy) make for worthwhile viewing.

Movie observations: Buddy was cute; wealthy and so lovable. Patrick Wilson a hunk, especially remembering him from Little Children and that scene in the laundry room with Kate Winslet. Also he was the wonderful guy in Phantom of the Opera movie. And who was that old, white-haired guy the father of the bride? None other than old Brad from Rocky Horror, he of the black rimmed glasses and jockey shorts. I had to look three times to see that it was him, and oh the shock of his elderliness -- Barry Bostwick. Claire Danes I remember from Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo di Caprio. Vanessa Redgrave, she of Queen Guinevere in Camelot -- whatever happened to Franco Nero? The night nurse: the beautiful white spangled strapless evening gown. Mamie Gummer giving a good cry on the bed, on the day of her ill-matched wedding to the non-hunk Carl (Karl?). Meryl Streep, quite a different character than as a country singer in that Garrison Keillor movie (I can't think of its name). Loved the regal old cars in this movie; these automobiles/limousines that would only belong to the wealthy. Seeing the old-time clothes and hats brought back a lot of memories. Redgrave good in her American accent, being British; she is the daughter of a very famous English actor Michael Redgrave. A very good cast; I have enjoyed the movie. Scenery breathtaking and beautiful.