Starting Out in the Evening poster & wallpaper

Adrian Lester, Anitha Gandhi, Frank Langella

The solitary life of a writer is shaken when a smart, ambitious graduate student convinces him that her thesis will bring him back into the literary spotlight.

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2,598 ratings

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96 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 51 min.

Directed by: Andrew Wagner

Release Date: November 23, 2007

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DVD Release Date: April 22, 2008

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  • her69eyes
    February 28, 2009
    her69eyes
    I first discovered "Starting Out in the Evening" by Frank Langella himself, who on promotional tours for his new film, "Frost/Nixon", praised this work as his finest. Here, Langella plays Leonard Schiller, an author based in New York. His four published books are now out of print...( read more), and he's spent almost a decade on his new book. Early on in the film, he meets Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose, from "Can't Hardly Wait"), a graduate student who wishes to write her thesis on Schiller. He's her favorite author, and it's her intention to not only write her thesis but to bring Schiller back into the mainstream public's eye. Their relationship, of course, evolves from student-mentor to something far more sexual and loving.

    Meanwhile, another story is woven by following Leonard's daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor). She's in her late 30's, and is now feeling the pressure to have a child. Years ago, she was involved with Casey (Adrian Lester), however their relationship came to it's conclusion when she had an abortion to get out of an unplanned pregnancy: Casey never wanted a child. It's curious, then, that Ariel calls Casey one night to meet him at an old restaurant with sentimental value to the couple. This woman, not too long ago, was considering purposely leaving out her diaphragm and tricking her boyfriend into getting her pregnant. Now, she's getting back with the man who she knows quite well doesn't want a child. Despite being a very steadily-moving and calm picture, there's a frantic "race against the clock" vibe from both the aging writer and his unmarried daughter.

    "Starting Out in the Evening" achieves it's mild successes only from the strength of the two lead performers, Langella and Taylor. We've seen both archetypes before - the woman with a ticking biological clock and the past-his-prime author. Both performers, however, are able to add a layer of complexity to these characters, particularly Langella who has a graceful elegance that is almost heartbreaking. While he's a larger-than-life Nixon, here he almost feels like a small, broken man, especially when compared his younger, full-of-life admirer.

    The film, however, was definitely a slight disappointment for me. The story progresses in a familiar way, especially in the final half of the film involving a hospital stay by Leonard. The film, before that moment, was very smart - in fact, almost pretentious in it's "let's dress up and discuss fine literature while drinking wine" parties that, I hope, only occur in movies like this one. As clever as it may be from time to time, it still doesn't avoid the familiar conventions that belong to a less engaging picture.

    "Starting Out in the Evening" works for it's good performances, but beyond that it's rather dry. For anyone interested, it's available on NetFlix Instant View.
  • EarthlyAlien
    December 1, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Heather: "Do you think people will still be reading you in a hundred years?
    Leonard: What I wonder is whether people will still be reading in a hundred years."

    ...( read more)ank">Photobucket

    Technical advances bring artistic opportunities. Admittedly, I've seen my share of indifferent films shot on digital video, but at the same time, DV's also given us some of the best performances in recent memory - Vera Farmiga in Down to the Bone, Patricia Clarkson in Pieces of April, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Sherrybaby, Laura Dern in Inland Empire. And, to that list, we can now add Frank Langella's performance in Starting Out in the Evening - and those of Lauren Ambrose and Lili Taylor, as well. Langella plays Leonard Schiller, a novelist trying to finish one more book, even though his other works are seemingly long-forgotten. But a graduate student, Heather (Ambrose), comes to call; she's working on a thesis about his earlier novels, and would like to interview Leonard for it. He's not interested - too much work, too little time - but something about her tenacity and insight wins him over...

    ... and perhaps it shouldn't. Ambrose's Heather is captivating and complex from the outset - left to her own devices in Leonard's apartment she immediately starts casing the joint. She's smart and swift and manipulative - but, in a weird way, not maliciously so. And soon she gets the measure of Leonard's life - writing, writing and more writing, punctuated by the company of his daughter Ariel (Taylor) from time to time. Ariel's breezy and mostly together - and in a relationship she's not crazy about, still thinking about her ex, Casey (Adrian Lester). Ariel would very much like to be a mum, but things aren't working out that way; maybe they never will.

    So many films these days are so driven by big conflict and big concepts and big metaphors that the subtlety and small-scale motions of Starting Out in the Evening sneak up on us; both Leonard and Ariel are so obsessed by the idea of how much time they have left that they're missing out on what's happening during the time they have now. And both of them come to a very different understanding of time and its unstoppable forward motion.

    Director and co-writer Andrew Wagner (who, along with Fred Parnes, adapted Brian Morton's novel) has a ridiculously strong cast, and he gives them room and space to work. It pays off. Ambrose manages the difficult trick of portraying intellect in a way that's immediately apparent; Taylor's fresh and warm and complex; Lester's light and gracious and conveys big decisions through small things. But it's Langella who truly gleams, and only now do I get last year's rumours of a possible Oscar nomination for his work here. Langella has the same stuff Bergman's actors did to play here - heartbreak, regret, sorrow, anger, pride - but there's much more to Leonard than just fireworks. It's not just any actor who can make you watch transfixed as his character picks up a pen, sighs and begins doing a line-edit of a thesis paper - about his own work and life. And yet, Langella makes that as compelling and as vital as any shouted exchange of dialogue or tear-stained speech - and that's just one example.

    Starting Out in the Evening doesn't mis-step in depicting the complex relationship between Leonard and Heather so much as it goes down a specific path that I found hard to reconcile with the film itself. Heather and Leonard at one point do take their relationship from the realm of intellectual conversation into a more physical area, and while such things aren't unprecedented, it did feel out-of-tune with what we'd seen of her character up to that point; Heather becoming a lover to Leonard implies she's careless with either her heart or her thesis, neither of which seems like her.

    And at the same time, what a pleasure it is to see acting so good that you do, in fact, form a strong opinion of what a character would or would not do based on nothing more - or, rather, nothing less - than the quality of acting. Ambrose, Langella and Taylor, following Wagner's direction, each get to build performances that strong, that real, that vital. It would be easy to pass by Starting Out in the Evening through any one of a number of possible snap judgements - too New York-y, too pro-literature, too low-budget, too digital - but you'd also be missing out on three of the best performances of the year '07, regardless of the medium they're captured in.
  • flickfever
    December 12, 2007
    flickfever
    This movie has everything that I love in a movie: an air-tight, engaging and excellently-written script; cream-of-the crop actors (talent-wise, not tabloid-wise) who really grip you with their intensity and utter devotion to the characters they are playing; and a director who rea...( read more)lly knows what the film they're making is all about and what it should mean to the people who are watching it.

    Lauren Amborse (one of my favorites--of Six Feet Under fame) is a true revelation as an ambitious grad-student who is completely enamored with the world of literature and its escapist qualities. She is so in love with words that she is also in love with the man responsible for writing some of her favorite "works of art."

    This man would be Anthony Langella's character (and out-of-touch; hiding in the darkness, forgotten writer who is working on his latest (and presumably his last) great novel. Still, something is keeping him from completing his work of art (10 years in the making) and he's not sure why he's unable to just hammer it out and finish it. This is when Ambrose's character comes in and "shakes things up" for an old writer who has little chance at ever being published again and therefore, being forgotten for all time with no legacy to leave behind.

    Lili Taylor is outstanding as the writer's daughter. Her subplot storyline of feeling neglected by the men in her life (her father included) is heart-breaking and tender as well. It really shows you that this film is really a character showcase and it allows its actors to really sink their teeth and completely embody the characters they portray.

    There is so much hurt and joy and learning that words can cause and there is a way of using words to shield ourselves from the things we want protection from. But ultimately, the truth about the way we work and why we do the things we do comes to light and slaps some sense into us.

    We need words to slap us into believing in ourselves again. We need words to know how we truly feel about one another. We need words to live. We needs words to survive in a world where words are not spoken in order to spare someone's feelings or to strip someone from feeling anything altogether. Words give us our dignity--and when, for example, a writer runs out of words, sometims what's needed is somone to give that person the will (no matter how late in life; no matter how late in the evening of your existence) to speak words once more.
  • wbgoose13
    December 31, 2007
    wbgoose13
    Langella is very good, and Taylor all but his match, in understated literary drama.
  • sportsphenom1
    July 1, 2008
    sportsphenom1
    Like "Away from Her" and "Leonard Cohen: I'm Your Man", this film suffers from Lionsgate's amateurish production style. Like those movies, this plays like a made for TV movie on the Lifetime channel at times. Other times it feels like an episode of the "Larry Sanders Show" or "Cu...( read more)rb Your Enthusiasm." Moreover, supporting cast is comprised of members of the cast of "Six Feet Under", adding to the HBO flavour. Once I lowered my cinematic standards and stopped focusing on the overlit sets, I could finally delve into what is a somewhat interesting character study, albeit the themes are not necessarily resounding here. Bottom line, this film does not live up to the rave reviews it undeservingly received.
  • magnolia12883
    November 24, 2009
    magnolia12883
    Andrew Wagner's deep, sweet, thoughtful film is a vision of the solitary life of writing as it opens up to the input of others. We first see him eyes closed, hands clasped in front of him, almost praying, sitting in front of his typewriter. Here is a man who is uncertain where to...( read more) go next. His name is Leonard Schiller (Frank Langella) and he was once a decently famous author in New York who wrote four published books (and two unpublished ones) and has been working on his latest work for over ten years. Then, a breath of fresh air. Into his life comes Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose of TV's "Six Feet Under"), an ambitious and surprisingly thoughtful young graduate student who has fallen in love with Leonard's work and wants to write a critical career-spanning piece on him for her Master's thesis. Leonard is at first resistant to her advances, but is soon agreeing to meet and discuss his work with her on a weekly basis. Leonard is not well after a recent stroke and is trying desperately to get his final work out in the world, and at first sees Heather as a distraction before coming to appreciate her company, as well as her appreciation of his work; there is no greater aphrodisiac to an artist than finding someone to love their work. Early in their discussions, Heather kisses his hand and may in fact be infatuated with him - does she love him or his work? We think we know where this will go - a May-December romance for the ages with all the care and meaning of a sexual fling, but it's more than that; how much more I will leave you to discover. Meanwhile, Leonard has a daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor), a 40-ish pilates instructor who desperately wants to have a baby - so desperately, in fact, that she is currently having unprotected sex with her boyfriend to "trick" him into having a baby, although she sees him more as a means to an end, not as part of the actual life of the child. She once broke up with the love of her life, Casey (Adrian Lester of "Primary Colors") because he didn't want children and, it's hinted, all but forced her to have an abortion - a decision neither one of them could withstand the strain of. When he comes back into her life unexpectedly, will either of them have the fortitude to see their relationship through this time? The film was directed and co-written by Andrew Wagner, who made the semi-autobiographical pseudo-documentary about his troublesome family, "The Talent Given Us" (2004). This film, based on a novel by Brian Morton, is just slightly more dramatic and less like a documentary. The characters are all bright, intelligent, thoughtful and literate people who are well-spoken and well-read, careful about the words they use, goal-oriented but sensitive to the needs of others. Frank Langella gives the performance of his career as Leonard, a fiercely smart, uncompromising but kind-eyed old soul who is afraid to move forward in his life and yet doesn't precisely want to remain in neutral either, though his work suggests otherwise. Ambrose is strong as the young firebrand who catches his fancy and attracts his intellect, an intelligent and well-read romantic who thinks she wants to be close to the man whose work inspired her to be a writer; how close is too close is unclear. This could've been simply about these two intellectual writers with a massive age difference coming to terms with one-another and, perhaps, falling in love, but I also cared for Ariel as the self-doubting (perhaps, indeed, self-loathing) daughter who is aging too quickly and can hear her biological clock echoing in her mind, and Casey as the well-meaning and nice young man who loves Ariel but has always put his own desires and needs first - at no point including having children on his radar screen. These four people are searching for, in their own way, love and happiness and some of them go about it in the wrong way, and some of them may never be completely happy; their struggles are believable and absorbing, never punched up for dramatic effect. The results are oddly fascinating and utterly moving; one of the year's best films!





    NOTE: Nominated for Best Male Lead and Screenplay (Wagner and Fred Parnes) at the 2008 Independent Spirit Awards.
  • hossein13
    August 17, 2009
    hossein13
    Aug 09 - I liked the main character and disliked the girl. Langella does a good job playing the part but the whole thing does not raise to anything more than an average movie.
  • svmainus
    August 4, 2009
    svmainus
    Frank Langella gives a marvelous performance here. The movie itself though was fair at best in my opinion with a subpar script in comparison to the talent of it's actors. A nearly forgotten but once beloved writer struggling to finish what is to be his final novel, is confronted...( read more) by a young grad student who wants to do her thesis on his writings. Though he is hesitant to do so he begrudgingly accepts on her suggestion it might bring interest back to his writing and help him to get his novel published.
  • suprabuddha
    May 24, 2009
    suprabuddha
    The artist in winter
  • jjnxn
    April 4, 2009
    jjnxn
    Wonderful performance from Frank Langella is the main attraction of this film. Slow and at times a little dull but worthwhile to watch a master at work.

View All Starting Out in the Evening Reviews

Critic Reviews

December 14, 2007
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

A touching portrait of a man in the twilight of his life. full review

December 14, 2007
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

It honors values that seem obsolete in our trashy popular culture, obsessed with the sex lives of vacuumheads. full review

November 30, 2007
Claudia Puig, USA Today

A simple but unpredictable story of a man facing his mortality, it is simultaneously unsettling and deeply moving. full review

November 26, 2007
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

The picture feels both intimate and immediate, a model for what smart young filmmakers can do with good material. full review

November 23, 2007
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

It has the quiet beauty of a late afternoon, late in the autumn, when New York seems to be not just the center of the world but the crystallization of its finest tendencies.

November 19, 2007
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

This is what great screen acting is about. full review

November 15, 2007
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Remarkable film, indelibly marked by Langella's deeply felt portrait of a lion in winter. full review

November 3, 2007
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

The early scenes are electric with sexual tension, smart dialogue, and terrific performances - especially Ambrose's. full review

October 25, 2007
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Shrewder than it initially lets on, primarily because it refuses to schematically pigeonhole its characters. full review

View more Starting Out in the Evening reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • madmac17
    April 25, 2008
    madmac17
    I enjoyed the movie, but there's one thing that baffled me. Why did Leonard slap Heather? Opinions anyone?
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