*Burn Flix of the Month

  *Starting Out in the Evening

Cast: Frank Langella, Lili Taylor, Lauren Ambrose, and Adrian Lester

Director/Producer: Andrew Wagner

Genre: Drama

DVD Release Date: 04/22/2008

 Running Time: 1 hour 51 minutes

 

Starting Out in the Evening is Andrew Wagner’s independent drama─an adaptation of Brian Morton’s best-selling novel (1999)—starring Frank Langella (Dracula, Good Night, and Good Luck, Bad Company) as once-famed author, Leonard Schiller.  Due to the success of his first four novels, Leonard grapples with persistent bouts of writer’s block and the inability to culminate his final novel.  The novel, it is believed, will be his last work of substance due to his failing health.  Leonard has allocated nearly a decade to writing this highly-guarded work and he feels that he is “running out of time.”  The aging writer has structured a hermetic lifestyle that is void of distractions and social interactions that would interfere with his single-minded devotion to his craft.

Heather Wolfe (Lauren Ambrose), a graduate student and fervent admirer of Schiller’s work, contacts and informs him that she is writing her dissertation on his work.  At their first meeting, Heather broaches the idea of creating a portable reader of Schiller’s work, since most of his works are out of print; and using her dissertation to reintroduce the public to his work.  However, she would need to conduct a series of interviews with Schiller to compile the necessary information needed to build a competent thesis.   Leonard declines the offer stating that he “can’t afford to spend time talking about four old novels that are not even in print anymore.” 

Subsequently, Leonard realizes that the literary world has changed considerably in his absence; and the promotion of celebrity confessionals and self-help texts have become the market of choice.  He relents to Heather’s interview requests, and slowly within the orderly confines of his apartment, allows the layers of decorum and detachment to fall away.  Leonard begins to realize that Heather’s youth and cunning wit are beguiling enticements, titillating his interest with an awe-encompassing fervor that is unsettling. 

Additionally, each question she raises concerning his works, asserts that the author’s own experiences are interweaving throughout the lines of his prose.  Leonard counters by emphatically stating that “I give them (characters) the freedom to find their own way” in his narratives; and to suggest that events from his life are fundamentally integral to the progression of the situation at hand are false.  Leonard ultimately airs his incredulous sentiments concerning her circumspect line of questioning: “My God, can’t a writer draw from his life without being accused of autobiography.”  

Moreover, Leonard’s relationship with his daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor), takes a tumultuous turn as his interest in Heather intensifies.  Additionally, Leonard believes that Ariel is wasting time rekindling a relationship with her former boyfriend, Casey.  Casey is adamantly against starting a family, and Leonard views him as thoroughly selfish; and unsuitable for a woman turning forty who desires children.

Wagner’s tautly directed film vividly displays the formidable structures that are erected around Leonard—a serious of artist of note.  Both women in his life—Ariel and Heather—are eager to grasp for the intervals of dialogue and camaraderie that he assigns them.  No one interferes with his specified writing hours in his studio, and he rarely ventures from said vestibule for recreational outings.  Frivolity is not a luxury for a writer with questionable health, and he views the maturation process, as the opponent he trails unfailingly behind. 

Furthermore, Heather marvels at the stamina that a writer must possess in being productive throughout the course of a lifetime.  Being a writer herself, she asks Leonard why he continues writing; and how has he sustained his momentum for all those years.  He states succinctly that it has been solely: “The madness of art.”  Leonard identifies and assigns his condition, with the knowledge that he is caught in its (art) net by his own volition.  Gradually, he reveals to Heather that he did an injustice to Ariel during her adolescence by not being there emotionally for her, after the death of his wife (Ariel’s mother).   “I kept concerning myself with the perfection of my work,”—this revelatory statement expresses how the artist must continuously strive to achieve this fleeting goal.

Essentially, Heather wonders if the cost for being a successfully writer is truly worth the sacrifice of one’s family and social development.  Leonard makes no apologies for his Spartan-like lifestyle and social restrictions, for he will not waver for capturing his penultimate goal: completion of the novel.~

                                                                                                                                      ~CS Reid