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

Ricki and the Flash (Meryl Streep)

(Amazon UK link)

This film was recommended to me by Amazon, I assume, because I have very much liked other films with Meryl Streep. She is an outstanding actress, in my view. She 'becomes' the characters she plays in a way that’s rare. The variety of roles she has undertaken is astonishing - and ‘Ricki and the Flash’ is no exception.

Streep, who was over 65 when this film was shot, plays Ricki, a rock singer who hasn’t hit the big time, but plays regularly in a somewhat sleazy bar. During the week she works in a supermarket on the tills, with the aim of making ends meet; but she struggles to do so. Ricki could have passed for forty when we first see her singing and playing with her band, ‘The Flash’; as events turn out we realised that she was probably supposed to be in her fifties.

Early in the film we learned that Ricki’s real name is Linda, and she used to be married to the respectable, well-off Pete (Kevin Kline). They have mostly been out of touch for years, since she abandoned him and their three young children to follow her dreams of becoming a star. But a crisis has hit: their daughter Julie’s husband has left her, and Julie is seriously depressed. Julie is played by Meryl Streep’s daughter Mamie Gummer.

So Ricki flies to Indianapolis to spend a few days with her ex-husband and daughter, greeted at first with animosity, but surprisingly quickly she finds that she can help. Her sons are less keen to see her when they have dinner together: one of them has just got engaged, but doesn’t plan to invite his mother to the wedding….

There are several themes in this story. The main one is about what real motherhood means, and how being with children as they grow up matters more than giving birth to them. It’s about following dreams, about family relationships in general, about the contrast between material wealth and talent. There are one or two mildly amusing moments and a great deal that’s poignant and thought-provoking.

Having said that, it’s not the greatest script, and I didn’t much like the music; rock of that nature isn’t my style, and I found it rather too loud at times. Inevitably there’s quite a lot of music, as we see Ricki on stage; in one of the extras we learned that all the music is performed by the characters live to camera, and that Meryl Streep had to learn how to play a guitar in order to take this part.

Greg (Rick Springfield), Ricki’s lead guitarist and boyfriend, is excellent in his role too as a caring and understanding - as well as extremely talented - man. I was surprised to read that the actor is the same age as Streep; he, too, could easily have passed for forty or fifty.

The rating is 12 (PG-13 in the US) and that seems about right to me. There’s one implied intimate scene but we don’t see anything other than a few clothes being discarded in advance. There is some bad language but not the worst words, and there’s no violence at all. The content wouldn’t be of much interest to children or younger teens anyway.

It was rather different from anything we had seen for a while, and we thought it very well made. Recommended, if you are a fan of Meryl Streep and would like to see her in something entirely different. Or if you like films based around rock music.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's DVD Reviews

Evening (Vanessa Redgrave, Clare Danes, Mamie Gummer)

(Amazon UK link)

I assume that Amazon recommended this DVD to me because it features Meryl Streep, whom I consider one of the greatest living actresses. I have enjoyed many of her films, and the reviews of this were generally good, so I put it on my wishlist.

‘Evening’ was something I received for my birthday earlier in the year and which we watched last night. The blurb didn’t say much, other than that it was a heart-rending tear-jerker, but the cover looked appealing. We weren’t too sure what to expect, and wondered if it was going to be rather morbid at first, since the main character, brilliantly portrayed by Vanessa Redgrave, is an elderly woman called Ann who is evidently at the last stage of a serious illness. She has two daughters who seem to spend their time arguing; one is a traditional family woman with a career, the other has floated around between different jobs and boyfriends, and admits to being phobic about commitment.

Ann’s mind is evidently wandering somewhat, and when she mentions the name ‘Harris’ as a great mistake of her youth, her daughters wonder if she’s becoming delirious. But we’re then transported back to the 1950s, with Ann as a young woman (Clare Danes) going to her best friend’s wedding. Her friend Lila (Mamie Gummer) lives in a huge house, and is quite conventional; but her brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) is convinced that she’s about to make a terrible mistake in marrying the upright (and dull) Karl.

Buddy then introduces Ann to Harris, a doctor who is the son of the former family housekeeper. Everybody, it seems, is in love with Harris - and Ann quickly falls under his spell.

To say much more would be to give spoilers of a film that owes more to characterisation and scenery than plot. The action (such as it is) switches between the present and the past almost at random, as we gradually see events unfold during the weekend of Lila’s wedding, culminating in a tragedy which is not unexpected (since present-day Ann has mentioned it) but still shocking.

It was quite mesmerising at times, though neither of us found it heart-rending or even tear-jerking. However it was certainly thought-provoking and somewhat moving, although the tearful scenes were just a touch too melodramatic. Themes were about love, and choices; whether or not a life was wasted or fulfilled; the value of friendship, the dangers of jealousy. It was cleverly put together although towards the end there were some decidedly surreal scenes that were amusing rather than poignant, as it became clear that Ann had one foot in the next world already.

Meryl Streep’s cameo role did not appear until near the end, when she played the part of the now elderly Lila; perfectly cast, as the young Lila was played by her daughter. Indeed, most of the acting was very good, although I never quite believed in the drunken, confused Buddy, and I found Ann’s daughters’ bickering to be unrealistic and inappropriate on the whole.

It could perhaps have been cut from 112 minutes to 90 without any real loss, but I didn’t find it dull at all despite being somewhat slow-moving; the ending was less morbid and more upbeat than we had feared and overall I enjoyed it.

The rating is 12 which I think is about right; there’s no real violence, just a few instances of bad language, implied intimacy but no details. The subject matter is unlikely to be of interest to anyone under the age of about 15 in any case.

Recommended if you don’t mind a bit of melodrama, and enjoy meandering character-based thematic dramas.

Review copyright 2014 Sue's DVD Reviews