Evening (Vanessa Redgrave, Claire Danes)

(Amazon UK link)

We’re mostly re-watching films that we haven’t seen for eight or nine years, most of which we have almost entirely forgotten. One of the DVDs I moved to our ‘watch soon’ drawer is ‘Evening’. Neither of us had any memory of having seen it before, although we saw it in October 2014. So we decided to watch it last night. During the film some parts did come back to us, including the inevitable final outcome.

Vanessa Redgrave is perfect as Ann, the central character, drifting in and out of consciousness as she lies, dying, in her bedroom. We don’t learn what’s wrong with her, and it doesn’t much matter. She looks suitably old and frail, visited by her adult daughters Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette). It wasn’t until we saw the ‘extras’ that we discovered that Natasha Richardson is Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter in real life.

As Ann thinks about her life, which she feels hasn’t been all that worthwhile, she recalls vividly a weekend about fifty years earlier when she was chief bridesmaid at her friend Lila’s wedding. The young Ann is played by Claire Danes, and Lila by Mamie Gummer. Lila is from a wealthy family, and Ann apparently hasn’t visited their huge house before. She arrives with Lila’s younger brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) whom she clearly knows well, and who shows her around. Buddy, we quickly learn, is not happy - he drinks far too much and tries to turn everything into a joke.

Then there’s Harris (Patrick Wilson) who grew up as the son of one of the family servants. But Buddy treated him like a brother, and Harris has long left home and is qualified as a doctor. Lila was in love with Harris as a teenager, and Buddy thinks she still is… so he pleads with Ann to stop her getting married to someone whom she likes and respects very much, but isn’t in love with.

I found the storyline a bit confusing at first, switching as it does between the present Ann on her deathbed and the young, vivacious Ann who’s a little awkward as a person, but a beautiful singer. I couldn’t remember whether the wedding went ahead or not, or what happened with Harris, or Buddy, though there are hints quite early in the book suggesting that not everything is going to turn out well during the wedding weekend.

By the time I’d been watching for about ten minutes, I was completely hooked by this film which is beautifully made. It could have been morose or depressing, but instead it’s encouraging and ultimately quite uplifting. There’s a little bit of low-key humour - the elderly Ann, a couple of times, sees her staid night-nurse (Eileen Atkins) as someone angelic - or perhaps a fairy - although even these scenes are laced with poignancy.

The sisters Constance and Nina seem to squabble unpleasantly in a way I found unbelievable when we first saw this. But now, realising that it stemmed partly from their grief, and partly their unusual and sometimes stressful upbringing (as well as quite stark personality differences) it felt realistic, albeit sad; yet even these acrimonious interchanges are alternated with evidence of deep connection between the two.

Meryl Streep makes a brief appearance towards the end, as the adult Lila - and, as I had recalled, Streep is the actual mother of Mamie Gummer who plays young Lila, so that worked exceptionally well.  Lila and Ann share a moving scene that mirrors a similar one from the morning of Lila’s wedding day.

All in all, we thought it a lovely film despite the subject matter, and appreciated the extras - a few deleted scenes that were well worth seeing, and a good ‘making of’ documentary that wasn’t too long.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US) which seems about right; there’s nothing explicit and only one instance of ‘strong’ language, but there are a couple of quite disturbing scenes and the subject matter isn’t appropriate for children.

Highly recommended.

Review copyright 2022 Sue's DVD Reviews