Crépuscule

SYNOPSIS

Susan Minot's delicate novel about the treacherousness of memory is here given a leaden screen adaptation by director Lajos Koltai (Fateless). Co-scripted by Minot and Michael Cunningham (The Hours), it focuses on dying Vanessa Redgrave's remembrance of things past and how it affects her bickering daughters, Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson. Claire Danes plays the young Redgrave in the 1950s flashbacks that reveal the life-changing events at her best friend's Rhode Island wedding. The terrific female cast gamely tries to overcome the superficial emotional content and predictable storyline: Glenn Close oozes uptight old money as the bride's mother; Eileen Atkins makes her whimsical nurse-cum-angel role fly; and Meryl Streep's late arrival saves the maudlin third act. Sadly, a miscast Hugh Dancy fares less well with his character's homoerotic and incestuous yearnings. Performances aside, this is an undercooked, unsubtle and overly sentimental account of an already slight tale.