Claire Danes in Evening._________
Upstairs in a darkened room, Ann Grant Lord ( Vanessa Redgrave ) is dying. She's in and out of the dream state that sometimes accompanies the last stages—a state that will be very familiar to gay men who have witnessed too many loved ones die from AIDS. In and out of consciousness, Ann is attended by her hospice caregiver ( Eileen Atkins ) and her two grown daughters, Nina ( Toni Collette ) and Constance ( Natasha Richardson, Redgrave's real-life daughter ) . Nina ( still trying to get her life together ) represents creativity and independence while Constance ( with the husband, kids and beautiful home ) represents homespun, sentimental values.
While the two sisters fuss a bit at each other, their mother is dreaming of a pivotal weekend in her life from 50 years before: the WASP Newport wedding of her college friend Lila ( played as a blushing, confused bride by Mamie Gummer and as older and resigned to her fate by Gummer's real-life mother, Meryl Streep ) . What ensued that fateful weekend and how it affected the lives of the characters is the subject of director Lajos Koltai's movie Evening, a film rich with amazing actors and the melancholy of regret. In a summer of loud and increasingly razor-thin blockbusters, Evening feels like a breath of, well if not fresh air, at least something more substantial and intriguing: something to mull over after the credits roll.
Ann, in a delirious state, has mentioned to her daughters that both she and Lila's brother, Buddy ( Hugh Dancy ) , loved Harris ( Patrick Wilson ) , the impossibly handsome son of their childhood housekeeper. Ann adds that she and Harris 'killed' Buddy. This sets up the story, the majority of it told through the prism of Ann's memory of the events surrounding Lila's wedding. Buddy and Lila are children of the rigid upper-crust Witterborns ( Glenn Close, Barry Bostwick ) , who obviously have had a hard time with their son's 'artistic' nature ( read: homosexuality ) . Both Buddy ( who drinks to try and quash his sorrow ) and Lila have unrequited crushes on Harris, who has become a doctor. While these two fret over this easygoing dreamboat ( Buddy covertly, Lila overtly ) , Harris makes a play for the bohemian Ann ( played in her younger days by Claire Danes ) . When Ann gets up to sing a timorous version of Time After Time at Lila's reception, it is Harris' sultry, impromptu harmonizing that saves the day and clinches Ann's interest. As this long, impossibly beautiful starlit night unfolds, romance and tragedy will affect everyone.
That's a lot of plot ( and there's more ) for one movie to handle and Michael Cunningham, the writer of The Hours and A Home at the End of the World who also happens to be gay, hasn't quite successfully pulled off his adaptation of Susan Minot's sprawling novel. ( Minot also worked on the script. ) But Koltai's elegant, painterly cinematography—contrasting the gorgeous exteriors—give this story of regret, acceptance and missed opportunities a gorgeous canvas upon which to play out the story that helps it enormously. There are lyrical moments that help one overlook that—for all the talent and lush production design put forth—something about the movie doesn't quite land. Why? Too many plot strands? The mixed signals the characters keep throwing off? The movie's insistence on neatly wrapping things up? The abundance of weighty sentimentality, an awkward cross between The Bridges of Madison County and The Way We Were, perhaps?
But these 'something not quite right' rumblings wash away when the movie arrives at the scene it's been building toward: the deathbed reunion of Ann and the now-grown Lila. This meeting of Redgrave and Streep, those two acting titans, is brief but electrifying. Even without them, Evening is this season's The Notebook or The Lake House—the tragic romance drama that lovey-dovey couples and moonstruck gay men have been craving. With Streep and Redgrave, it's surely got the greatest special effect any movie will offer this summer.
Michael Moore's ability to get audiences to focus on serious social ills and do so while laughing has never worked quite so well as it does with Sicko. The movie, a true cautionary tale if there ever was one, zeroes in on the shameful state of healthcare in the United States, a country that used to pride itself on taking care of its own. Instead of focusing on America's uninsured as expected, the activist filmmaker presents examples of how the corporate mentality that has taken over the insurance industry is having tragic consequences on regular folks with insurance. It's an ironic distinction but one that won't surprise many in the gay community used to insurance company chicanery after decades of claim denials for those suffering from HIV and AIDS.
Moore uses his patented techniques—presenting the most horrific, sardonic stories ( a man having to decide which fingertip to keep based on how much it will cost, for example ) placed against impossibly perky Muzak selections to help underscore his points. As usual, Moore helps the audience retain the seriousness of his subject by dosing them with spoonfuls of sugar, laughs and pathos to help the medicine go down ( almost literally, this time out ) .
Unlike previous efforts, Sicko dispenses with most of Moore's patented political propaganda for a more humanistic approach—or does he? In tone, the movie doesn't seem all that different from Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine or Fahrenheit 9/11. He's just working with a subject matter that touches everyone in this country without distinction. Sicko makes you, well, sick with the injustices that have gone on in the name of corporate profit and leaves you with a desire to either fix up the mess we're in or move immediately to Canada, England, France or Cuba—where the many examples of the everyday miracles of socialized medicine presented in the movie almost seem like a fairy tale.
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . People can leave feedback at the latter Web site, where there is also find ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
