Starting Out in the Evening
by Andrew Wagner
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adrian Lester, Frank Langella, Jessica Hecht, Lauren Ambrose, Lili TaylorDirector: Andrew Wagner
Brand: LANGELLA,FRANK
Cinematographer: Harlan Bosmajian
Composer: Adam Gorgoni
Editor: Gena Bleier
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 111 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-04-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Lions Gate
Movie Reviews of Starting Out in the Evening
Movie Review: Langella's Schiller hardly seems like acting...until you remember his entirely different outing in Frost/Nixon
Summary: 4 Stars
With the exception of a very uncomfortable, reach-for-the-fast-forward button bedroom sequence, we enjoyed this small, intelligent film a great deal. Frank Langella is a hallmark of excellence. His Leonard Schiller hardly seems like acting...until you remember his entirely different outing as Richard Nixon (Frost/Nixon).
Lili Taylor is excellent here, too, as Langella's on-screen daughter Ariel. She's looking beautiful and performing better than ever at 42.
Adrian Lester - haven't thought of him since his turn as Henry Burton in Mike Nichols' adaptation of Joe Klein's Primary Colors: A Novel of Politics. He gives a nice outing here, too. His scenes with Langella are outstanding - the metamorphosis of their relationship is touching and realistic.
Summary of Starting Out in the Evening
Battling illness and unable to finish a novel that has taken him ten years to write, aging novelist Leonard Schiller is slipping into literary obscurity. Formerly a famous author, Schiller has been all but forgotten by the readers, colleagues and critics who once praised him. But when Heather Wolfe, an ambitious graduate student, convinces Schiller that her thesis could reintroduce his writing to the world, the reclusive writer is forced to confront his past regrets. Frank Langella delivers a career-capping performance as a man who must redefine his work - and his perceptions - in the twilight of his life.It's a familiar story: Pretty young thing shakes up silver-haired recluse. With the recent exception of Venus, however, most such efforts fall flat. In adapting Brian Morton's novel, Andrew Wagner treads well-worn ground, but avoids most pitfalls of the genre. It helps that his theatrically trained cast sidesteps clich? in their finely calibrated performances (including Jessica Hecht as a savvy magazine editor). He also refuses to exploit his female protagonist. Heather Wolfe (Six Feet Under's Lauren Ambrose) is confident and intelligent, but she's neither sociopath nor muse. The grad student approaches New York novelist Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella in a deceptively subtle turn) about interviewing him for her thesis, but he declines. He's working on his fifth book--the first four are out-of-print--and doesn't have time to spare. She flirts and cajoles until Leonard starts to yield. It's an open question whether the author is charmed more by her admiration or her good looks. There's shading in Heather's methods, too, since she has difficulty distinguishing the man from the myth. Leonard's daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor), is concerned their relationship is unhealthy, while he feels the same about her rekindled romance with former flame Casey (Adrian Lester). She wants to have children, he doesn't, and Leonard doesn't want to see her get hurt again. In the end, each charts their own course, resulting in a hopeful--if hard-won--conclusion. Written over two years and shot in 18 days, Starting Out in the Evening puts most big-budget literary dramas to shame. --Kathleen C. Fennessy
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