Customer Reviews

In the Gloaming [VHS]

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I found this movie to be inspiring, hauntingly beautiful in thought and performance, writing and directing. A current day story that any of us might experience, and might not deal with as well as depicted here. The title song at the end is breathtaking, and I have been searching for it since seeing the film last year. Thought provoking and important. Well worth watching.

This is just one of those movies where you walk away not sure what to say. I caught it by accident on cable, and was mesmerized from the second it started. It's a great story about life, and death, and all we hold dear to us.

Be sure to read the short story by Alice Elliott Dark this film is based on. The writing will draw you in, grab you, then leave you knowing you've just experienced a wonderful moment. The visuals are all there and far better than the film.

How would you feel if a younger member of your family were to come home... to die? This is the pivotal point of "In the gloaming." I especially liked Glen Close's able performance as the mother who tries to understand her dying son and tries to recapture, in those final days, a smidgen of their past. Various degrees of rejection and denial are interspersedly played by the other members of the family but through it all, there is a sense that there is much more to "living" than the simple act of existing. Haunting and beautiful.

This is a film which is inspired, in part, by "Ordinary People." Danny (Robert Sean Leonard), a young journalist, comes home and moves back in with his parents when he's diagnosed with AIDS. This film deals with he and his family's attempts to come to terms with the crisis they face and his impending death. The family is generally a good, loving family, but with communication problems. His mother (Glenn Close)is loving and compassionate, though tentative. It's clear that she and her son have always been close. His father (David Straithorn) wants to do the right thing, but doesn't quite know how to do it or face the inevitible. His sister (Bridget Fonda) is polite, but resentful and cold, Yet her behavior is understandable: her brother appears to have always been her mother's favorite. They are helped by a wise, supportive nurse (Whoppi Goldberg). Nothing that is said or happens is out of the ordinary, but it's so superbly written and acted, you won't be able to stop watching.

"In The Gloaming" is an excellent HBO production based on the story by Alice Elliott Dark. First time director Christopher Reeve tackled this challenging story about a young man with AIDS who comes back to the home of his wealthy parents to die. This drama only takes 62 minutes, but it packs an emotional wallop as the main characters have to come to terms with both their past relationships and the people they have become.

Robert Sean Leonard (who you may recognize from "House") plays the young terminally ill man, and steals the show. He brings almost painful poignancy to the role without appearing to be a caricature of suffering. Most of his time is spent with his mother, Glenn Close, who does a good job as the caring, though formerly distant, mother. The scenes these two share are astoundingly good. Also wonderful is Whoopi Goldberg, who plays a nurse. This role shows off her enduring flexibility as an actress, and here she could not be better. Bridget Fonda was not quite as compelling as Leonard, Close, and Goldberg, although she did put past family conflicts into perspective. I wasn't as fond of her role as I would have liked to be because she seemed more a plot contrivance to provide background than a necessary and integral part of the story. David Strathairn plays the father, the most aloof of all the family members, and comes across as profoundly insufferable for the majority of the film, which is, of course, exactly what he is supposed to do. I was hoping for a better resolution to the father and son relationship than was provided, but of course this frequently mirrors real life in that relatives don't always get closure before death.

Overall this is an excellent and absorbing drama, that is not preachy, yet makes many important points about family relationships, particularly in wealthy and distant families. Reeve did an excellent job as a director, and was more creative than I had expected. The cutaway shots featuring Leonard in a black and white musical were skillfully done, and edited perfectly; likewise the photography and pacing were excellent.

"Gloaming" is a synonym for "twilight", and is still used in parts of Scotland. This film portrays Leonard in the gloaming of his life: the metaphor of the beauty of a sunset turning to the darkness of night couldn't be more fitting.

I caught this by chance on HBO, and it was one of the best accidents that I have encountered. The correct words to describe this film fail me because it would be hard to give it the justice it deserves. Actions speak louder than words . . . I was in tears by the end of the film. That is how powerful it was and how it can truly touch someone from the emotions evoked by the wonderful acting to the relationships that develop between the characters to the music used that fuse perfectly with each scene.

In the Gloaming is about a man dying of AIDS returning home to spend time with his family for presumably the last time. I'm sure most people know that it's coming, but the movie is still such a great emotional and dramatic ride that reflects on life and all of the greatest memories of it, and you will still cry when the time finally comes.

One of my favorite movies, if you are looking for a good movie to cozy up with a box of tissues to, THIS is an A+ film. Reeve does a GREAT job as director.

Based on the short story by the same name by Alice Elliott Dark that John Updike included in his collection of best short stories of the last century, no small achievement on the writer's part, IN THE GLOAMING is a near perfect movie about hard topics: missed opportunities, what happens to families who do not talk about important subjects, family dynamics that do not improve with time, the never-ending need to be accepted by your parents and homophobia-- in this instance in an upper middleclass family.

In this 60 minute long HBO production-- the story is so sad that the viewer's tear ducts are about emptied out by the end of the movie-- Danny (Robert Sean Leonard) is a young man with AIDS who has come home from San Francisco to die. The details of the movie are not new. His story-- or at least parts of it-- is the same as that of literally thousands of young men in the United States under the cocktail became available in the mid-nineties that turned people's lives around within days. His lover Paul could not cope with Danny's diagnosis and bailed out. Danny's sister (Bridget Fonda) does not bring her young son to see Danny and tells her mother (Glenn Close) that she will not raise her son by getting too close to him as Close raised her son, therefore making sure that her son does not become a homosexual. Shouldn't this woman be told that we are fairly sure now that the world is not flat? Whoopi Goldberg as Danny's nurse exudes warmth and love. I suspect she is playing herself since she has been involved in the AIDS fight from the beginning. David Strathairn as Danny's father Martin is the saddest of characters. It is impossible for him to get inside Danny's head and heart so he plants tomatoes, plays golf, attempts to take his wife on a trip to Italy. No father should have to utter these words on the death of a child: "please tell me what my boy liked."

Glenn Close (Janet) comes to grips with mistakes she has made in the past-- she never invited Paul and Danny to Thanksgiving, Danny's favorite holiday as she now learns ("I thought you were too busy with your own life")-- and never discussed anything about Danny's life in San Francisco. Now she wants to know: "Did you love and were you loved in return?" She admits under questioning from Danny that while she was once wildly in love with his father that marriage for her seems liked something you endure. One wonders if this marriage will survive after Danny's death.

The title of this movie is so beautiful, the gloaming, that time at twilight between day and evening when the world is peaceful and beautiful. Danny and his mother spend many evenings in the yard in the gloaming, which is of course symbolic of Danny's own life as his days are numbered. The action takes places from August to November as the leaves turn and autumn turns the green to gold.

Both the acting and directing get an A. Glenn Close stands out in a fine cast as the mother who learns from her past mistakes. She tears up about 15 minutes into the hour and her eyes glisten for most of the 45 minutes remaining. IN THE GLOAMING should serve as a cautionary tale to families, the closest and often most abused unit on earth, that whatever your differences are, that you talk about them and make peace with your family members in the precious little time you have on this earth.

I brought "In the Gloaming" because I am a big fan of Robert Sean Leonard. The movie did not disappoint. The acting was right on target. Leonard does a great job of playing a young man, who although at odds with his family, feels the need to come home to die. Glenn Close gives a strong and moving performance as the mother/wife caught between the tensions of her husband and daughter and that of the return of her beloved Danny. This was a big tear jerker for me. I think everyone who watches the movie can relate to a time in their life where they felt at odds with their family or as if didn't exist. My only problem was why Bridget Fonda was ranked above Robert Sean Leonard in the marquee. She was in it briefly for I think two scenes. Worth watching over and over again.