| |
Nabaza.net-The MarketPlace - In the Gloaming
|
List Price: $14.98
Our Price: $2.98
Your Save: $ 12.00 ( 80% )
Availability: N/A
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
Starring: Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Whoopi Goldberg, Robert Sean Leonard, David Strathairn
Directed By: Christopher Reeve
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780783109640
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0783109644
Label: Hbo Home Video
Manufacturer: Hbo Home Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Hbo Home Video
Release Date: 1998-03-24
Running Time: 67
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1997-04-20
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Original produced for HBO, this hour-long drama marks the emotionally stressful turning point for a family nearly torn apart by the tragedy of AIDS. It also marked a turning point for actor Christopher Reeve, making an acclaimed directorial debut following the horse-riding accident that left him a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the shoulders down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. This moving drama proved that Reeve could succeed in his second career, drawing upon his own experience to elicit fine performances from his distinguished cast. Robert Sean Leonard plays a gay man in his early 20s who returns to the home of his affluent parents in upstate New York, dying from AIDS and wishing to spend his final months with his family. While his mother (Glenn Close) responds with care and compassion with the help of a live-in nurse (Whoopi Goldberg), his father (David Strathairn) is unable to accept his son's sexual orientation, much less his inevitable death. His sister (Bridget Fonda) is equally confused and detached from the family, and this emotionally wrenching situation generates a slow and painful change in the dynamics of this dysfunctional family. Similar in theme and quality to Ordinary People, this thoughtfully written and directed film packs more honesty and emotion into 62 minutes than most dramas twice that length. It's a showcase for superior talent and a remarkable achievement for everyone involved. --Jeff Shannon
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating: 
Summary: In The Twilight...
Comment: "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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Bring Plenty of Tissues
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Transcendent Beauty
Comment: "In the Gloaming"
Transcendent Beauty
Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride
"In the Gloaming" is a private, quiet and gentle filmed directed by the late Christopher Reeve. It is gorgeous in its simplicity and has a great deal to say. Here is one of those films that are not soon forgotten.
A son spends his last months at home, in a wheelchair, as he dies of AIDS. In doing so he helps his family come to terms with his life and e brings his parents to an understanding of those unsaid things that caused them to drift apart over the previous years. The movie is short but in its brevity it expresses the deep, gentle love that is revealed during tragedy.
All of the action revolves around the family's domestic routines and intimate conversations between mother and son who bask in the gloaming or the last hour of sunlight. The mother is played by Glenn Close and she is brilliant. Leonard, the son, is beautiful in his delicacy and as he fades, we all fade a bit. The movie is about mother and son and everyone else in the film takes a backseat to this. At the end of the story, the secondary characters rise to take their places in the story but only at the end. We know that there are family complications, especially when a family member s dying. What is compelling is the stoic and reserved nature of the response of the characters to the gay son's health crisis.
Whoopi Goldberg turns in a good performance as the nurse teaches the mother to care, physically, for her son and to interact with him. The death scene is heart breaking and it gives a beautiful symbolic representation of as one life ends, another is reborn.
The exploration of the family over a four month period as the prodigal son ails and dies is touching to the point of hurt. Danny, the dying son, as well as the other family members has constructed illusions of perfection so they do not have to face the pain of their isolated and lonely lives together. Only Danny is aware how everyone feels beneath their self-deceptions. His presence jars them to shirk the pretense and they fall away just as quickly as Danny's body loses strength. The unpleasant reality emerges that the gay son has returned home to die.
The family is "perfect", save Danny. He has brought shame ad a sense of disgrace to them with his sexuality. Yet he is the only one who has lived his life openly and honestly. As he transitions to death, what has made him an outcast becomes the most profound and greatest gift his family will ever receive. He taught them self-sacrifice, non-judgment and unconditional love.
The title comes from the time when Danny and his mother share their lives with each other in open and candid ways. During the gloaming things move more slowly and G-d's face is visible. It is then that they heal and become whole.
Even though the son has AIDS, the movie is not about AIDS at all. It is a movie about going home and about healing.
This movie is Reeve's legacy to us and it is a beautiful legacy that he left. He moves us and our souls leading us into the family and its troubled relationship. He has wrapped himself in this movie and then tied it with a bow and gave it to us. It's a beautiful gift.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Another HBO Excellent Production
Comment: 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.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A Moving, Intimate Film
Comment: 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.
|
|
|
|
|
|
| | |
