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Starring:
Lauren Ambrose, Karl Bury, Anitha Gandhi, Sean T. Krishnan,
Frank…
Review:
Frank Langella has won a slew of awards for his stage work,
including a Tony this year for playing Tricky Dick in
Frost/Nixon. But on film, most recently in Good Night,
and Good Luck, Langella flies under the Academy radar. Wake
up, voters. In Starting Out in the Evening, adapted from
Brian Morton’s novel by director Andrew Wagner, 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. So when firebrand grad student Heather Wolfe (a wondrous
Lauren Ambrose) calls for an interview, Leonard is reluctantly
reawakened to his talent and sexuality. How the two merge is the
haunting business of Wagner’s remarkable film, indelibly marked by
Langella’s deeply felt portrait of a lion in winter.
Rating: 3 Stars
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