ShareThisLike "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," "Starting Out in the Evening" was groomed for an Oscar run late last year but didn't get any tugs on its line.In the shadow of screen-defining greats such as "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood," it was tough going for a quiet little rumination on late-life love and career prospects.Now that the film is coming to smaller cities after all the awards hysteria has died off, it can be appreciated for what it is -- a strong but not-quite-great drama that can hang with most any competition currently in theaters.Frank Langella, 70, plays creaky old author Leonard Schiller, who wrote a couple of literary classics early in his career and has used them as proverbial laurels on which to rest for decades.He's long been working on that "next book" that never quite gets finished, and facing diminishing prospects in romance and prestige. Leonard's bitter, co-dependent daughter, Ariel (Lili Taylor), means well but only enables him in his feeble malaise. He wastes his days in his office, staring at a blank screen, moonlighting at parties where he's tolerated as an archaic mascot; fewer and fewer people have read him.Change sweeps by when a worshipful grad student, Heather (Lauren Ambrose), drops in on Leonard and coaxes him to speak with her every few days for her thesis. As Ariel looks on in jealous annoyance, Heather helps Leonard get his groove back.Despite Leonard's token resistance to Heather's flattery and fixation, he grants her entry into his closed-off trophy room of a life. All bluster and idealism, Heather breaks him down with ease, quoting his work, asking incisive questions and staring at him with moon eyes.Romance seems inevitable, although both are aware that they could be hurt and that Ariel wouldn't tolerate such a liaison. Leonard and Heather fall into a deep intellectual infatuation that hammers away at the boundaries of age and professionalism. Both leads embody their characters with shallow but convincing performances. All Langella must do is be old and crusty. And Ambrose plays a variation of her character on HBO's "Six Feet Under."Somehow, the events never quite cross the line into Creepy-ville, which is a credit to the innocent intimacy between the actors and the cool hand of director Andrew Wagner. The filmmaker debuted in 2004 with the jovial, unorthodox road-trip comedy "The Talent Given Us," which starred his family members playing themselves, improvising dialogue along the way.The rickety movie was a warm-up for this skillful drama, which emits as much measured professionalism as his last movie did amateurish playtime. Wagner has turned the page on a promising career, and it will be exciting to see what the next chapter brings.3 stars out of 4Rated: PG-13 for sexual content, language and brief nudity.Family call: Fine for teens.Running time: 111 minutes.(Phil Villarreal is the author of the novel "Stormin' Mormon," due out in March and available on Amazon.com. Contact him at pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Langella is fine in a strong drama about an aging author
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