Metacritic-Rezensionen

The strength of the screenplay and acting provide a satisfying, although not overwhelming, two hours of romance, drama, and tragedy.

The film, like the book, is clear-eyed without being clinical, reflective but never maudlin.

Susan Minot’s resplendent novel of a dying woman…stumbles on its way to the screen.

Individual moments are not without their felicitous touches -- mainly due to the cast, which is rich to the point of improbability.

What a cast but what a disappointment.

The film is based on a novel by Susan Minot--one of those books where the author doesn't deign to put dialogue in quotation marks for fear of dispelling the dreamlike mood. It works on paper, but Minot, who shares credit for the adaptation with fellow novelist Michael Cunningham, doesn't understand that screenwriting is the art of taking away.

This is one of the rare movies that are too sensitive for their own good.

Parked uneasily between sensitive indie and studio chick-flick, Lajos Koltai's Evening makes star-studded hash of Susan Minot's beautifully written, if emotionally constricted, novel.

Evening feels like one of those devil's-candy productions that aim to bring artistry to a large audience, specifically a large audience of adult women who don't often go to the movies. Even considering it in that light, I found it miscalculated and overcooked.

The performances, especially by Hugh Dancy as a sexually confused rich kid, are overwrought, and the script, which Michael Cunningham ("The Hours") wrote in collaboration with Minot, is slack.