Wrapping a film in luscious sets, peopling a film with gifted actors, decorating a film with lovely music, does not a good movie make if, at its core, it consists of poorly written dialogue, lacks any uniting tension to justify the viewer's interest, and contains too many disjointed scenes in dire need of editing.

Great Movie, Tense exciting and romantic

Overly pretentious, overwrought, and over-rated. Depending on what you think about Claire Danes, she is either horribly miscast, or deserves the Razzie for worst performance of the year. She is that bad, and the movie is that bad.

I was INTENSELY disappointed by this movie which was replete with several reputable actors. The story was lackluster, inconsistent, and unworthy of the plethora of emotion which the actors were made to effuse. Despite the sorry medium, Hugh Dancy shone as an actor of great scope and ability.

Evening is a star-studded soap opera that moves at a snails pace that would have been much better without the flashbacks to a weekend wedding that plays like a Douglas Sirk take on The Great Gatsby. But I'd put down another ten bucks just to see the 10 minute scene between Vannessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep over again! It was like Pacino & DeNiro in Heat, one of those landmark meetings of acting Gods that make you forget that you've been sitting through 2 hours of schlock just for this moment, and boy is it worth it!… Expand

What a disappointment! I knew when I started counting the illuminated exit signs in the theater 45 minutes into the film that we were on a downward spiral. With such a stellar cast, I wondered if anyone actually read the script beforehand? The film is so plodding and lackluster that when Meryl Streep finally shows up at the end you hope for salvation. The actual short scene with Streep and Redgrave is riveting, unfortunately it only lasts minutes. Rent the DVD and fast forward to the last 20 minutes.… Expand

With a great song from Dido on the trailer and a cast full or great actresses how could you go wrong. That is what I thought going into the film. I took my mom and grandmother and my grandmother was the only one who enjoyed it. My mother and I felt like it was two hours of our lives we would never get back. The film kept the same pace the entire time. A very dull place. Meryl Streep was only in the movie for all of 10 minutes if that. As soon as she made her exit it was back to dull again. I can't speak on the movie in detail because there is absolutely nothing to say. I left that movie figuring out how to salvage the rest of my day.… Expand

Susan Minot’s Evening is an outstanding novel by an underrated writer. What’s impressive is the marriage of desperate emotion with cool technique, as dying Ann Lord drifts back to her defining youthful weekend with handsome but irresolute Harris Arden. Minot’s cascading passages cleverly match Ann’s fateful mental descents, drawing out the truth and tragedy of any life not “long enough or wide” for its owner to “know the whole of herself”. Lajos Koltai cannot translate this subtlety, and his Evening arrives as a pleasant postcard from an inconsequential director. Neither is Michael Cunningham (yep, him of The Hours, with Nicole K and her Virginia W proboscis) a sublime choice as Minot’s script collaborator. I don’t understand the gloss that is put on Harris’s rejection of Ann, nor indeed why the brilliant Minot would collaborate with pedestrians like Koltai and Cunningham. It’s only a four, but let’s give it five for Claire Dane’s vivacious turn.… Expand

Halfway through the film, I had to escape, so I got up, went into the lobby and talked to the lone ticket taker about the history of the theater and life in general. Since my aged Aunt was inside … one of about 10 in a theater that could have held 400-500 … I went back. My lobby discussion was the best part of the 2 hours I spent there …. Perhaps I can make a movie based on it. My 86 year old Aunt who was looking forward to the movie said, “Why was it so long?”… Expand

Although I have heard good things about the novel, the movie was excruciatingly bad. There isn't even the usual excuse that the author was not involved as she co-wrote the screenplay with another well-known author (and the writing was one of the worst things about the movie). Even the much-commented upon scene with Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep arrives too late in this plodding picture to evoke any reaction other than "Please die soon" [addressed to Redgrave's character].… Expand

It's hard to picture in my mind that this garbage actually hit theaters. It is seriosuly the most BORING movie ever to be made.