Starting Out in the Evening

An aging writer trying to finish his last book; a fawning, young English grad student. Sounds like a recipe for something. Like "Venus," this is another in the genre of old-guy-and-young-girl-have-quasi-romantic-relationship movies. The actors (Frank Langella and Lauren Ambrose) get their characters right on: the writer is scholarly played, and the grad student has the perfect mix of snobbery, obsequiousness, and flirtation. The ending too is nice. If you don't want a hint, stop reading. But a lesser movie would have the writer embrace life in new ways, forsake writing and live his life to the fullest; here, he stays true to his profession and literally starts out in the evening, and it's refreshing.