Starting Out in the Evening Critic Reviews

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 the full review

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 the full review

Succeeds so beautifully because of a compelling story, great acting, intelligent writing and sensitive direction.Read the full review

Andrew Wagner has made a lovely comedy of death and rebirth.Read the full review

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 the full review

We are slowly and mightily drawn into this intimate story, which is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally moving.Read the full review

Director Andrew Wagner draws topnotch work from a pro cast in Starting Out in the Evening, a wise, carefully observed chamber drama.Read the full review

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 the full review

It's a gentle, unhurried drama about how people can connect with each other through conversation, nonverbal gestures, and writing.Read the full review