GREENLIGHT #152: Evening (with "Romeo + Juliet" and "The Women")

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Ann and Les were sorely disappointed by this Evening (2007.) They couldn’t imagine how a film loaded with such talent could be so dull but it was. No one was able to liven up this story of a dying old woman, played by Vanessa Redgrave , telling her daughters, played by , Toni Collete and Natasha Richardson (who is her real life daughter too – should have been more interesting) of her life secrets which we see in flashback with the old woman now young and played by Claire Danes . And the two major stars touted quite heavily, Meryl Streep and Glenn Close were barely in the film and despite their good efforts, could do nothing to help it. For their GREENLIGHT Rentals, Les recommends a film in which he first saw and loved Ms. Danes called Romeo + Juliet (1996.) It’s a pretty well known story but it had a fresh turn in the modern day suburb of Verona with Leonardo DiCaprio playing Romeo to Ms. Dane’s Juliet. John Leguizamo also turns in a wonderful performance as Mercutio. Ann picked a movie that was everything “Evening” wasn’t. Her movie starred Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell as three high-society New York women backbiting and clawing their way through their days with much spunk. The famed women’s director George Cukor really proves his reputation here when he filmed Clare Booth’s venom-filled screenplay called The Women (1939.)
RUNNING TIME: 15:00

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