Passable romance, or Notebook redux?

"We are mysterious creatures, aren't we."

\

We'll level with you: we hated The Notebook. We hate pretty much anything that involves Nicholas Sparks. So, it was with dread and trepidation that we viewed the trailer to Evening, a Focus Features multi-generational love story being released as summer counterprogramming. But will this suck?

First, the good:
1. The Cast
- Claire Danes and Patrick Wilson are great on their own (and together in that Gap commercial), but the big draws here are Meryl Streep, Vanessa Redgrave, Toni Collette, Glenn Close, and Natasha Richardson. That's the 1927 Yankees of actresses.

2. The Writer
- Michael Cunningham (The Hours) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist and his first try at screenwriting - A Home at the End of the World - was promising. If he can have the same kind of crossover success Richard Russo (Empire Falls) recently enjoyed, this could be a summer sleeper.

3. No Nicole Kidman
- This is exactly the type of film where you'd expect to see Kidman's name above the title, especially when you consider she won her Oscar for The Hours. She's now too old/busy for this kind of role. Thank you, Keith Urban's liver.

Now, the bad:
1. The Director
- Former cinematographer Lajos Koltai has but one German film to his credit, the concentration camp drama Sorstalanság. Um...

2. The Music
- Anytime the trailer divolves into a Dido montage near the end you know you're being emotionally manipulated. We haven't even stepped in the theater yet, guys, you have time.

3. Patrick Wilson
- This is a bad career move for him. When does he get to carry a film? He's astonishing in Angels in America, Little Children, even The Alamo - why this?

Overall, it's not a bad trailer, but they're going to need some killer TV spots to get us to pay $10 to see this. Either that, or a night with the boys at Barney's Beanery as collateral.