It’s very odd film that can discuss heart-blackening guilt, loveless marriage, pain and regret only to taper off into a dry-eyed ending.Two sisters, Constance (Natasha Richardson) and Nina (Toni Collette), peer down at their shrivelled mother, Anne, as she breathes her last. Suddenly, a secret escapes from her morphine-induced mutterings, one that she’d carried to her deathbed. The secret is a man named Harris.
Harris was the one who got away from Anne after a fling at her best friend’s wedding. And Harris is the one who comes back into Anne’s heart and mind as she tries to pass on lessons learned to her daughters.
The film jumps back and forth to the young and vivacious Anne played by Claire Danes in a thorough, bold and self-assured performance. Sadly, Patrick Wilson’s Harris is one huge anticlimax. After a near perfect performance in Hard Candy, here Wilson looks like he’d be more comfortable in Madame Tussauds. Or perhaps his tightly stretched face just makes it impossible to muster any kind of facial expression.
The present day scenes linger almost as implausibly as the dying mother. And despite the overload of serious talent – including Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep alongside their real-life offspring – Evening says nothing new about the mistakes we make, the regret we harbour and the love we should have allowed in.
