Get a Map!

Since I now have a film blog, I ought to post reviews of films that have nothing to do with my class. Based on the buzz for Frank Langella (remember, I'm an awards hound), I went to see Starting in the Evening on Tuesday. Besides that any hint of a sexual relationship between a Grandpa-age man and someone a wee bit younger than me makes me squeal "ew!," I have some geographical complaints with the film.

Script inconsistencies plague Starting out in the Evening, marring the memory of achingly vulnerable Frank Langella as an aging writer.

For one thing, as a Jersey City resident with a best friend on West 75th Street, I know Hoboken is not that far from the Upper West Side. But the way the characters speak of the town’s location - four times, no less - you'd think it was in Connecticut.

Of course, the much-remarked-upon distance may be a metaphor for relationships in Starting out in the Evening. Langella plays Leonard Schiller, an author whose time has past - or hasn't come yet, according to brash grad student Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose). Heather writes her thesis on Leonard and thrusts herself into his life - literally. Ambrose leans into Langella whether she’s sitting in a diner or touching him with honey. (Don’t ask.) Heather’s intensity vividly contrasts with Leonard’s shuffling, dignified manner. Langella’s eyes convey someone who has seen a lot, not without some amount of pain, and his tone is cautious and measured. It’s as if Leonard fears feeling.

Heather’s agenda feels muddled: Is she pretentious? An earnest book lover? A seductress? Fred Pardus and Andrew Wagner’s script, based on Brian Morton’s novel, remains frustratingly obtuse. We know little about Heather; in fact, she disappears for almost the last quarter of the movie.

Simultaneously, Wagner, who also directed, looks at the life of Ariel (Lili Taylor), Leonard's pushing-40-year-old daughter. The two share a frank, loving bond, although we hear references to tension over the years.

Therein lies yet another discrepancy. For someone who supposedly shows emotional constraint, Leonard astutely comments about Ariel's relationship with re-ignited flame Casey (Adrian Lester). A blocked father couldn’t observe that his child compromises herself and her familial dreams for someone who doesn‘t put her first.

Starting out in the Evening also spends more of the second half on Ariel’s arc - a moving story, but one belonging in another movie.