Starting Out in the Evening
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: November 23, 2007 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
78
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
2
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The movie is carefully modulated to draw us deeper and deeper into the situation, and uses no contrived plot devices to superimpose plot jolts on what is, after all, a story involving four civilized people who are only trying, each in a different way, to find happiness. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
A rapturous, ruefully funny flight of sympathetic imagination. Featuring the first movie role for Frank Langella that ranks with his best stage parts, it's a rare kind of American movie. Read full review
100
New York Magazine (Vulture)David Edelstein
Above all is Langella, achingly vulnerable under layers of flesh. In one scene, alone, he eats peanut butter intensely, thoughtfully, and nothing he could do as Hamlet would seem deeper or more poetic. Read full review
100
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Intelligent, involving and conspicuously adult, Starting Out in the Evening is almost shocking in its distinctiveness, its ability to create high drama from an unlikely source. Read full review
100
The Hollywood ReporterJames Greenberg
Succeeds so beautifully because of a compelling story, great acting, intelligent writing and sensitive direction. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Andrew Wagner has made a lovely comedy of death and rebirth. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. Scott
What is so remarkable about Mr. Langella is that he seems to hold Leonard’s intellectual cosmos inside him, to make it implicit in the man’s every gesture and pause. Read full review
90
SalonStephanie Zacharek
It's rare to see a movie adaptation in which a filmmaker has taken so much care in translating the odd little qualities that make a particular novel special, to preserve the complex and fragile threads of feeling between characters that are often much easier to grasp on the page. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
Whether this reserved, hypercautious widower can deal with the arousal she creates in him - let alone be physically able to act on it - is one of the many layers of tension that drive this unusual and absolutely riveting dance. Read full review
88
USA TodayClaudia Puig
We are slowly and mightily drawn into this intimate story, which is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally moving. Read full review
83
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
Director Andrew Wagner, adapting a novel by Brian Morton, is sometimes understated to a fault, but his work with the actors, who also include Lili Taylor as Leonard's daughter, is impeccable. Read full review
80
The New YorkerDavid Denby
Langella is superb, and Starting Out in the Evening is a classy film. Read full review
80
Film ThreatRick Kisonak
Movies about writers are almost always romanticized affairs but Starting Out in the Evening is the rare exception. It is at once an elegy for the vanishing generation of Bellow, Cheever, Mailer and Updike and a dead on indictment of our culture’s current state. Read full review
80
VarietyScott Foundas
Director Andrew Wagner draws topnotch work from a pro cast in Starting Out in the Evening, a wise, carefully observed chamber drama. Read full review
80
Village VoiceElla Taylor
This wise, observant, and exquisitely tacit chamber piece complicates every May-December, academic-novel cliché in the book. Read full review
80
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Like most of this refreshingly subtle film, it's not what you expect, and it's not something you've seen before. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneJessica Reaves
Because the characters are richly realized and their dialogue rings true, we stick around, rooting for something like a happy ending. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
If the film has a weakness, it's an ending that's so vague and open to interpretation that it's not at all clear how director Andrew Wagner ultimately wants us to feel about these self-absorbed characters and their precious literary concerns. But the performances carry the day. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A "small" movie. But in its keenly observed examination of strangers who become intimates - and of family members who remain, in part, strangers - it has big things to say. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
It never commits the sin of sentimentalizing old age, as Hollywood usually does when it deigns to admit that people over 55 exist. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
This is a human-sized drama about people with contradictory motives, trying to help or use each other. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Fact is, Starting Out is pretty dry stuff as a movie, even as it's enlivened by vivid acting. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Langella delivers a master class in acting. He's playing Leonard Schiller, an aging author aching from the loss of his wife, a weak heart and literary neglect. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
It's a gentle, unhurried drama about how people can connect with each other through conversation, nonverbal gestures, and writing. Read full review
75
New York PostLou Lumenick
Taylor also makes an impressive comeback as the conflicted daughter who instinctively distrusts Heather, but Starting Out in the Evening is first and foremost a triumph by Frank Langella. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Part of Morton's achievement is to present all four people through the viewpoints of the other three; Wagner can't do that, but the performances are so nuanced that the characters remain multilayered, and they're not the sort of people we're accustomed to finding in commercial films. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
It's also and most interestingly about the writing process itself, a difficult feat to pull off on film, which Wagner and co-screenwriter Fred Parnes manage to display with unvarnished realism. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A gentle collection of scenes that work and scenes that don't. Read full review
63
Miami HeraldConnie Ogle
Taylor is effective as a woman struggling to take control of her life, but Ambrose's work feels shallow in comparison. Read full review
63
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Starting Out never builds to the explosive climax it seems to be heading for, which I suppose is a good thing for its overall integrity, but maybe not so good for its motion-picture value. Read full review
63
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Intelligently acted but oddly stagnant adaptation of Brian Morton's acclaimed novel. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
Wallows in bleakness and settles for sentimental gestures. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Wagner and company fail to follow Langella's primary rule of storytelling: "Follow the characters around until they do something interesting." Read full review
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