Evening is the ultimate chick-flick. Two sisters (Collette and Natasha Richardson) are torn by the death-bed ramblings of their near-lucid mother Ann (Redgrave). Her occluded mind reveals itself in flash-back when the younger woman (now played by Clare Danes) falls for best man Harris (Patrick Wilson) at a well-heeled wedding. To the chagrin of the bride’s mother (Glenn Close), the bride also loved spunky Harris. So did her brother (Hugh Dancy), Ann’s would-be boyfriend. Oh the anguish! Based on Susan Minot’s best-selling book, Evening circles three parallel stories of love loss and regret that, with the late arrival of Meryl Streep, is filmed with the best female cast since Steel Magnolias.

However, Evening is thin drama writ large; it’s all in the title. Missing vital cues, Koltai has created elegant melodrama from elements which should have offered a much greater emotional resonance. There’s more in common with Mills and Boon than the high-literature it alludes to. All the boxes are checked, all the high and low points covered, yet it remains so much less than the sum of its parts. Evening’s highly polished veneer causes audiences to slide across without really cutting into the film’s surface. Magical flourishes, such as disturbed Ann chasing imaginary butterflies, heightens the gulf between what is billowing romance on one hand, and heartbreaking loss on the other. The two halves gain little traction, a problem  that this well-performing, once-in-a-lifetime cast is unable to overcome.

Of minor interest, Redgrave and Richardson are real-life mother and daughter, while Streep appears as an older version of the character played by her own daughter, Mamie Gummer.

// COLIN FRASER