Denby on "Evening"

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Starting Out in the Evening director Andrew Wagner depicts the relationship between novelist Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) with an admiring student (Lauren Ambrose) and his wayward daughter (Lili Taylor) "with some delicacy -- perhaps too much delicacy," writes New Yorker critic David Denby. Someone who was vaguely irritated with this film....finally!

"Schiller is meant to be a survivor of the New York Jewish literary renaissance of the 1950s and 60s, but the movie, for all its considerable intelligence, dries out his temperament too much. Anyone who remembers that vanished tribe of New Yorkers knows that, even in their later years, they made a joke now and then and were given to malice and desire as well as to bouts of intellectual severity.

"After a while, Schiller’s austere ironies wilt one’s respect for him. Langella is superb, and Starting Out in the Evening is a classy film -- I never thought I would hear the phrase 'Trilling, Howe, and especially Edmund Wilson' uttered in a movie theatre -- but it could have used a little less circumspection, a little more juice."

comment #1

Mike Schaefer says ...

Check out Mick LaSalle's review on the SF Chronicle site -- he was more-than-vaguely irritated, especially with Lauren Ambrose's perf, which he hated. On the other hand, he also *hates* There Will Be Blood and I'm Not There.

comment #2

Rob says ...

I didn't much like this movie last year, when it was called Venus, and I really, really hated this version.

comment #3

btwnproductions says ...

It's terrific, if admittedly, and unapologetically, rarified...maybe not but one of my Top 10, but not to see it is to deprive yourself of a great performance by Frank Langella.

comment #4

lipranzer says ...

I liked this more than VENUS - I think the characters were much better developed. Also, Denby has a point in that Langella's character was more feisty than reserved in the novel, but I think Langella conveys all of that in some subtle ways. And I completely disagree with LaSalle about Lauren Ambrose - she convinced me of her intelligence and her ulterior motives, as well as her character's point of view on life and writing. Plus, I didn't see any trace of Claire Fisher (or her other performances, for that matter).

comment #5

Fudge Ripple says ...

It has one of the greatest face slaps in recent movie memory.

comment #6

BurmaShave says ...

"Langella is superb"
- David Denby, The New Yorker

comment #7

Mike Schaefer says ...

"It has one of the greatest face slaps in recent movie memory"

There's still no face-slap like Sissy slapping Marisa in In the Bedroom.

comment #8

George Prager says ...

Philip Roth still likes to joke around every now and then:

“Up here, there’s no beach, there’s no town, there’s no place for anybody to go, so all you have to do is stay at home,” Roth said. We were driving in his Volvo along the banks of the Housatonic River. Suddenly, he went into “Deliverance” mode: “Well, o’ course, we got the rivah heah, yessir we do!”

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2000/05/08/2000_05_08_076_TNY_LIBRY_000020772

comment #9

christian says ...

Whenever I dip into my treasured collection of the WRITERS AT WORK series from The Paris Review -- the best interviews ever on the subject with some of our greatest writers and finally republished -- I'm always a little miffed at the stoic humorlessness of many of the scribes. Tho Harold Bloom was funny.

comment #10

T. Holly says ...

Christian, if you could only have one, would it be The Paris Review or The New York Review of Books?

comment #11

christian says ...

The Paris Review all the way. They trumpeted the Beats while the east coast literati disparaged. Plus, TPR had Terry Southern. They also got Hemingway for a hilarious interview. Y tu?

comment #12

T. Holly says ...

I have some bonus money, heck I'll splurge for both, but that'll blow my Skype wifi phone budget. I'll share my NYROB with you, if you share your TPR with me.

comment #13

christian says ...

Sounds good to me. I even have extra copies of certain WRITERS AT WORK volumes, so I can share their lit grace. If you're any kind of writer, these interviews are like lessons from the mount.

I'm not so hip with the NYROB anymoe, anything good I missed?

comment #14

T. Holly says ...

I'm taking this off line, shhh.

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