Fridae

Evening is the sort of serious star-studded women's drama that will draw plenty of literary dykes and fags' attention. The names of the actresses alone will cause our Oscar radars to overheat � Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Claire Danes, Glenn Close, Toni Collette, Natasha Richardson.

Even the pretty male actors here would meet our strict approval: Patrick Wilson (who first stirred our pants in Angels in America and then again in Little Children) and Hugh Dancy (the delicious dandy-ish actor in Savage Grace).

Evening is based on a bestselling Susan Minot novel that was turned into a screenplay by Susan and Pulitzer-winning gay writer Michael Cunningham (The Hours, A Home at the End of the World). It tells a gentle and lyrical tale of an old and dying woman (Vanessa Redgrave) who tries to recall that one special event in her life that defined the rest of it. That event, she decides, was the brief but passionate affair she had when she was young, with a handsome young doctor (Patrick Wilson) whom she met at her friend's wedding.

Although the affair did not last, it had permanent repercussions on their lives and those around them � one of them being that the bisexual young man (Hugh Dancy) who was secretly in love with both her and the doctor would suffer a tragic fate.

Directed by Lajos Koltai, Evening is a film that shines in some parts and sags in others. For sure, every single actor gives a strong performance that lifts the film immeasurably. But the lengthy scenes and dialogue surely point to the failure of the director and screenwriters to be more precise and economical.

Still, the cast is an unusually strong one. Claire Danes, as the younger version of the dying woman, has rarely been this watchable. Meryl Streep and Toni Collette are brilliant as always, while Hugh Dancy is remarkably charming and complex as the closet bisexual.

For moviegoers with a soft spot for quality actors, Evening is the movie to see. But don't go if you're tired, or you might fall asleep.