best movie i've ever seen.

A different way of telling a story

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

This film would be a prime candidate for the most star-studded work that most movie fans have never heard of. Sadly this has a lot to do with the fact that the stellar cast of thespian talent is overwhelmingly female and the author of the original novel and co-author of the script is a woman too. I suspect that, if so much male talent had been dissipated, we'd know more about it.Imagine a movie with Vanessa Redgrave and daughter Natasha Richardson, Meryl Streep and daughter Mamie Gummer, Glenn Close, Toni Colette, and Claire Danes. How could it possibly fail? But it does. Maybe it's the men that one should blame, especially co-writer Michael Cunningham ("The Hours") and Lajos Koltai on only his second directorial outing.I imagine that "Evening" worked much better as a novel, where the constant time shifts would be easier to follow, and I understand that Susan Minot's book presented a darker picture than even the rather nihilist picture in the film version. This tale of love and loss could have been so much more powerful, but this treatment is too slow and fractured to hit the emotions as it should.

I had high hopes for this picture, considering their was such a large and almost all-star cast. In reality what I got was kind of a half-ass try at a love story that could have been told so much better. The story line was a little faulty and the best thing was the landscape of the setting. Claire Danes is not as great of an actress as I thought. She has some talent, but she is just shy of Oscar material. The best acting was done on Hugh Dancy's part with his portrayal of the miserable drunk. Harris' appeal was unknown to me, and why everyone was in love with him was a mystery. The charisma was low and the story was weak. I was expecting a grand love story with magic mixed in and I didn't receive. I am sure to be more careful about how high I allow my hopes to get next time. So, thanks for wasting my time to Lajos Koltai. In all the misery and weakness of this movie, came some good. I cried at the end because it taught me something. Now I know that life should not be wasted and every moment is precious. It seems that life flies by. Being only an adolescent myself, maybe I have no real idea what I am babbling about, but I think that deep inside the poorly made cinematic adventure, was a message about how short and sweet life really is.

I really wanted to like this, but it never really took off. There wasn't enough substance to explain why the two characters had this strong-I'll-never-forget-you connection. They just met and then were immediately in love (yes, I've heard of love at first sight, but they seemed to be saying it was more than that but never really explained it). Then the end of the movie just fizzled and didn't explain what happened between them.This movie did have moments. The scenes with the older woman and her daughters were nice, but this movie never lived up to what it felt like it could be.