Evening — A highly esteemed group of actresses including Vanessa Redgrave, Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Toni Collette and Natasha Richardson comes together for a pretentious, maudlin pile of goo based on Susan Minot’s book. Michael Cunningham, who wrote the novel The Hours, helped Minot adapt the screenplay and infuses it with the same romanticised sense of self-importance.

But let’s be honest: What we’re looking at is a highbrow chick flick, though one that’s beautifully shot. (Hungarian director Lajos Koltai is an Oscar-nominated, veteran cinematographer.)

Redgrave stars as Ann, a woman lying on her deathbed, recalling the one who got away one summer 50 years earlier. Her children (Collette and Richardson, Redgrave’s real-life daughter) sit beside her, listening to her half-coherent rants and looking perplexed.

Meanwhile, in flashbacks, Claire Danes plays young Ann visiting Newport, Rhode Island, for the society wedding of her college friend, Lila (Streep’s daughter, Mamie Gummer, and the resemblance is startling).

Patrick Wilson, eternally playing the prom king, co-stars as the generically attractive guy who still tugs at Ann’s heart, and Hugh Dancy gets some volatile drunken moments as Lila’s younger brother, who’s smitten with Ann. PG-13 for some thematic elements, sexual material, a brief accident scene and language. 117 minutes. Two stars out of four. — Christy Lemire