Starting Out in the Evening

From The Movie Snob

Starting Out in the Evening (B). This is a quiet little independent movie about a once-famous novelist in his 70's who is struggling to finish one last novel. Leonard Schiller (played by veteran Actor Frank Langella, Good Night, and Good Luck) is as reserved a guy as you can imagine. He's the kind of guy who never goes out, or sits down to write, without putting on a tie. Anyway, his wife is long dead, and his 40ish daughter Ariel (Lili Taylor, Ransom) is unliterary and a bit of a basket case. His world is shaken up when ambitious grad student Heather (Lauren Ambrose, Psycho Beach Party) persuades him to help her with her master's thesis on his work. From there, the movie is a close observation of their relationshio, as well as Ariel's relationship with an ex-boyfriend who comes back into her life. I enjoyed it, although I didn't find the ending altogether satisfying.