Writing, especially good writing, is a medium that inspires not only great conflict, but great discussion. Sadly, some of the best writers of all time are some that you will probably never hear of, and “Starting Out in the Evening” is about the writer’s struggles to remain relevant in a world with no use for their styles, all the while still inspiring people to discuss his work even after he’s been obscured by the literary society. “Starting Out in the Evening” is a deeply profound and intelligent drama about the writing experience, and the struggles of a man to remain alive in a world that thinks of him as a dead artist. Frank Langella pulls in a strong performance as Leonard Schiller, a writer who hides in his room writing a novel he’s been at work on for ten years, and is suddenly brought out from the darkness by an eager Graduate student who insinuates herself into his life.

For Schiller, he’s long abandoned any hope of success, and is unsure of what he wants for himself. What of the writer who wants to tell a story that the world doesn’t want to know of? What of the writer who can’t admit that they’re work of love and turmoil will never see the light? Schiller’s life is one of insight and Parnes and Wagner expresses great exploration into the life of the obscure writer who seeks an audience, even after their prime where success was always out of their grasp. The dichotomy between Leonard and his unusual and somewhat irritating cohort Heather brings a great dichotomy of an older man who didn’t realize how he longed for the spotlight from a girl who seeks to bring him back into relevance once more with a thesis she’s forming about his work.

If not, then is she seeking relevance as an individual in the man’s work? “Starting Out in the Evening” soon becomes a tragic drama about a man seeking to finish what he started and atone for sins he felt he committed in a life of self-satisfaction and the pursuit of a goal that cost him human relationships. The writers paint Schiller as the ultimate portrait of a writer, a man who is so engrossed in building his novels and his work that he sacrifices human relationships to accomplish it. Thus, it’s the curse of any and all devoted artists. Lili Taylor’s good grace and understated performance makes her a wonderful balance to the plot as she’s an almost startling mirror of her father’s life and almost always acts on the characters her father draws in his novels as a woman who always finds a reason to leave her relationships behind for often twisted reasons.

Mostly, Langella is the strong point of the film playing wonderfully off of Lauren Ambrose who is an often appealing part of a world that Leonard has no grasp on. She’s a paradox of a gorgeous young woman who seeks only to drown herself into literature at Leonard’s surprise. The relationship between the two is unusual in its sense that nothing ever truly happens beyond the clashing of their minds, and the constant wonder of what Leonard wants from Heather, and what Heather wants from Leonard. And like every writer, Leonard is painted aptly as a man who continues on in spite of no hope of success ever within his reach. The closing shot juxtaposed with the opening shot that Wagner brilliantly unfolds for us is a beautiful and accurate portrayal of the writer in all its flaw, excellence, and grace. Come obscurity, irrelevance, success, or fame, a writer still has to write, regardless. It’s stunningly poetic.

This is a film I expected to feel indifferent towards and yet was completely taken with the beautiful and profound statement about the average writer and the effect they have on their environment. Frank Langella's performance is a compliment to an already brilliant film.

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