„ainment 'Starting Out In The Evening' Film examines Jewish novelist's life of the mind. Michael Fox Special to the Jewish News L eonard Schiller, the frustrated, forgotten, 70-something novelist at the center of Starting Out in the Evening, symbolizes a dying era in Jewish letters. Played with cultured reserve by the for- midable Frank Langella, Schiller is closer in style and sensibility to Saul Bellow than to Norman Mailer. Co-writer-director Andrew Wagner, who's in his mid-40s, knows that ethnic and literary terrain well. But it was his reverence for the solitude of the writing process that impelled him to adapt Brian Morton's 1998 novel for the screen. "It's hard to say I identify with Leonard as a Jewish writer in today's world:' Wagner explains. "My strongest personal pull to the book has to do with the journey of the artist over time through loneliness, through the questioning of our own lives and the world around us." Wagner is an earnest fellow, albeit with an easy laugh, and he chooses his words carefully during a leisurely Sunday after- noon chat prior to his film's showing at a Bay Area film festival. It befits someone who's been a writer since his undergrad days at Brown, and who strives to main- tain an intellectual and spiritual existence amidst the hedonism of his adopted city of Los Angeles. "I'm probably more identified with the , cultural aspects [of Judaism] than the traditional religious pinpoints:' he muses. "It was important to me that there was Jewishness in [Leonard's] background becauseit kicked up feelings of familiarity with his world — the fact that he was a New Yorker from the Upper West Side, liv- ing only blocks from where I grew up. "Because he was Jewish, I think I under- stood him on a cellular level. I could feel his life, even though he and I are from dif- ferent generations." The staid, widowed Schiller, whose main contact with the world is through his 39-year-old, still-unsettled daughter, Ariel (Lill Taylor), is thrown for a loop in Starting Out in the Evening by an ambi- tious grad student (Lauren Ambrose of Six Feet Under) who wants to revive his legacy and short-circuit his current writer's block (he's been at work for 10 years on what is to be his last novel). The screenplay acknowledges Schiller's Jewishness (the novel won the Koret Jewish Book Award for Fiction) but to a lesser degree than Morton's work. Accordingly, Wagner and Langella never discussed Leonard's Judaism in meetings or on the set. "It's a quiet, subtle shading that helps create a sense of history about the man:' Wagner explains. "Our goal was not to define Schiller through his Jewishness but allow it to be a part of his makeup, so it just existed in the collective unconscious Jews Nate Bloom Special to the Jewish News Chinese & A Movie In addition to the other movies featured in this week's Arts & Entertainment section, there are quite a few others with Jewish connections – all opening Friday, Dec. 21 – perfect for viewing after a traditional X-mas meal at your favorite Chinese restaurant. National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a sequel to National Treasure, a 2004 conspiracy-action flick that was a Jake Kasdan big hit. Nicolas Cage and Justin Bartha, 29, co-starred in the origi- nal and are back again. (Bartha is a West Bloomfield High School grad.) Both flicks were directed by Jon Turteltaub, whose father, Saul, was a top TV-show producer. Likewise, Jake Kasdan, the director of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, is "second generation." Kasdan, 31, is the son of famous B4 December 20 • 2007 director, U-M grad and former Michigan resident Lawrence Kasdan (The Big Chill, Body Heat); Jake was born in Detroit (his mom is Detroit native Meg Kasdan) but grew up in Los Angeles. His previous flicks, Orange County and The TV Set, did modest business but earned pretty good reviews. Jake co-wrote Walk Hard with the hot Judd Apatow; it's a fictional comedic satire of the musical bio-pics of recent years. John C. Reilly stars as Cox, a famous singer who has played in a variety of musical styles during a career that began in the '50s. The film intertwines him with a long his- tory of musical figures, including the Beatles. Playing small roles are Paul Rudd, 38, as John Lennon and Jason Schwartzman, 27, as Ringo Starr. In P.S. I Love You, Hillary Swank stars as Holly, a woman married to the love of her life – a passionate and funny Irishman named Gerry (Gerard Butler). Just before sick- ness takes his life, Gerry records 10 messages for Holly. Each is deliv- ered over the course of months in a surprising way, sending Holly off on adventures of self-discovery. Gina Gershon and Lisa Kudrow (Friends) play Holly's best friends. Charlie Wilson's War, directed by Mike Nichols and written by Aaron Sorkin (The West Wing), is based on the real-life story of Wilson, a hard- drinking Texas congressman who funneled money to the Islamic rebels who were fight- ing the Soviets Shaun un "rou'' b in Afghanistan in 1979. Wilson recruits assistants – including Israelis who modify and manufac- ture Soviet weapons to maintain the illusion of American neutrality – in a lot of odd places. The huge cast, led by Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts, includes Shiri Appleby and Persian-Jewish actor Shaun Toub (Crash) playing a Middle Eastern Muslim named Hassan. Sweeney Todd, the Broadway musical hit by Stephen Sondheim, finally comes to the big screen. Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat) has a supporting role in this tale about the "Demon Barber of Fleet Street." of the film. In the novel, his father was a rabbi and wanted Leonard to follow in his footsteps, and he broke his father's heart by becoming a writer. It's a different kind of spiritual path. It's spirituality through creativity:' Starting Out in the Evening is by turns contemplative and messy as it depicts the collision between Schiller's rarefied pur- suit of measured literary fiction and the emotionality of real life. Familial messiness defined Wagner's debut, The Talent Given Us, a semi-autobi- ographical, button-pushing film in which he cast his parents and sisters. Wagner is a devotee of the "sacred writ- ing room:' a trait he shares with Leonard Schiller. But he's come to adopt a Zen attitude toward the collaborative nature of making movies. "There's a great deal of letting go when you get to the filmmaking process, and one of the things you let go of is satisfac- tion," he confides. "The film (which took 18 days to film on a very small budget in New York City) takes on a life of its Hot Dates JDate, the big Jewish dating ser- vice, has hit on a clever way to get publicity: It asked its members to pick their favorite Jewish celebrity of 2007 and made a donation to the winner's favorite charity, thus assur- ing a quote from the winner. This year's winner is Larry David, 60, who was cited for bringing Jewish humor into his TV show Curb Your Enthusiasm. David told JDate that he would accept the honor on "the condition that I don't have to go out on a date." Maybe David is "date shy" because his wife, Laurie David, divorced him earlier this year after leaving him for the family gardener. Larry David CNBC talk show host Donny Deutsch, 50, finished high up among the faves. He did a nice job of civilly tongue-lashing Ann Coulter when she recently told him on The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch that Jews "were unfinished Christians." I i