RECOMMENDED Frank Langella is the center of this quiet telling of the autumn years of Leonard Schiller, an older, blocked writer who lives in New York, investing a talky adaptation of a novel by Brian Morton, with his substantial presence and gravitas, but also humming with notes of bridling pride and impacted anger. (The character of Schiller seems to be intended as a cross of James Salter, of the parsimonious output, and late Leonard Michaels, of the even-more-sparing output and lifelong randiness.) “Starting Out in The Evening” is the second feature by Andrew Wagner, whose debut, “The Talent Given Us,” was a maniacal gem, a movie that starred his parents and sister as exaggerated versions of themselves, comical yet heartfelt. “Evening,” the last production from the mostly lamentable output of the now-defunct “InDiGent” shot-on-video-for-nothing digital production venture, is hushed by comparison. Lauren Ambrose is the saucer-eyed graduate student who brings her youth, pale skin and bright red hair into his cloacal, book-lined life, and the opportunities for mutual exploitation are explored with the right emotional notes, if perhaps a little too much dialogue that’s descriptive rather than plaintive. (This cut, rated PG-13, surely now lacks the most startling moment in the version shown at Sundance 2007, which involved Langella and full-frontal nudity.) With Lili Taylor and Adrian Lester. 109m. (Ray Pride)
