Between the forces of love and death, we swing back and forth in time. Ann Lord (Vanessa Redgrave) lies dying, slipping in and out of consciousness and back and forth from the present to a powerful memory of a weekend 50 years ago when she attended a high society wedding in Newport. She was the maid of honor for her best friend from college, Lila Wittenborn (Mamie Gummer). It doesn't take her long to discover that Lila has a bad case of the jitters, which her brother Buddy (Hugh Dancy) says is because she should be wedding Harris Arden (Patrick Wilson), a friend of the family, son of one of the Wittenborn's servants, whom she has had a crush on since she was 15. He is now a doctor.
Ann lives in New York City and earns a living as a singer. She is an outsider to Mr. and Mrs. Wittenborn (Glenn Close and Barry Bostwick), but Buddy, the family rebel, is drawn to her bohemian lifestyle and thinks of her as a kindred spirit. He introduces her to Harris. Ann and the quiet doctor go for a walk together, and romantic sparks fly. He points out a star and suggests it is their own, then kisses her. Throughout the weekend, these two are drawn closer to each other. In one of the high points of the wedding celebration, Ann sings a song dedicated to Lila and Harris drifts out of the audience to join her in this vocal tribute.
Evening is based on a 1998 novel of the same title by Susan Minot. It has been adapted for the screen by the author and Michael Cunningham (The Hours). The director is Lajos Koltai ( Fateless), who was previously an Academy Award-nominated cinematographer. He makes the most of the paradisiacal Newport setting; the Wittenborn mansion sparkles before our eyes, a jewel surrounded by wind and water. It's no wonder that the spirit of the place and that pivotal weekend lives on in Ann's memory.
In the present, Ann is attended to by a wise and compassionate night nurse (Eileen Atkins), who is intimately acquainted with the stages of dying. Her daughters are keeping vigil: Constance (Natasha Richardson), a married mother with two children, and Nina (Toni Collette), an unhappy single woman who is pregnant with her latest lover's child. In her rambling talk, Ann speaks Harris's name, but her daughters have no idea who he is or why he is important to their mother. They are only familiar with the sadness of her three marriages and the disappointment of her singing career. When her daughters ask about him, she replies, "Harris was my first mistake; like your first kiss, you never forget it." As the memory unfolds, it's clear that he may be the only one she ever really loved.
We all make mistakes in life, and many people allow them to cause great damage and depression. But on the spiritual path we learn to see our errors as lessons and use them as fuel for help us move on to new possibilities. Buddhist writer Ajahn Brahm states it well, recalling the words of a builder:
" 'We builders always make mistakes,' he said, 'but we tell our clients that it is "an original feature" with no other house in the neighborhood like it. And then we charge them a couple thousand dollars extra!'
"So the 'unique features' in your house probably started out as mistakes. In the same way, what you might take to be mistakes in yourself, in your partner, or in life in general, can become 'unique features,' enriching your time here — once you stop focusing on them exclusively."
Dealing with mistakes in relationships is a central theme in Evening, affecting several of the characters. In a brief but poignant scene, an African American piano player says to a young Ann: "Mistakes are beautiful. Mistakes are part of the fun." Mistakes are part of the human drama, and we would do well to handle them and remember them gracefully.
Ann is unable to see this until her old friend Lila (Meryl Streep) visits. She helps her to reframe some of the key incidents that happened at the wedding. The scene in which Lila climbs into Ann's bed to talk closely with her, mirroring a wedding day moment between the bride and her maid of honor, is one that will stay with you for a long time. Friends provide a healing and redemptive service for us when they offer a fresh perspective on events which have dogged us for years and hardened our hearts. A final dialogue between Ann and Nina brings mother and daughter to a place where deep intimacy and love are shared.
Evening is a psychologically rich drama dealing with the matters of the heart we must face as we swing from the ardor of first love to the peace of our last breath.
Special DVD features include deleted scenes; a featurette: "One Weekend by the Sea: Remembering Evening"; and "Adapting Evening."
