Each of these characters in Starting Out in the Evening has their own needs and desires, but they unselfishly interact with each other, learning from each other the importance of sharing life. For people who like a meaty intellectual story, there is much here to enjoy. No less than Roger Ebert said that Langella's performance was Oscar worthy. That the Oscars ignored it only confirms that movies of the mind and emotional depth play second fiddle to movies of entertaining merriment. 

Up until this point, Gershon was probably best known for her recurring role on Melrose Place. The argument could be made that, in contrast to Berkley’s, the movie helped Gershon’s career, probably because Gershon’s sumptuous, femme fatale turn as Cristal Conners possibly could have worked if it were featured in literally any other movie with these themes.

And like every "right and wrong side of the tracks" story, such as The Outsiders, Far and Away, or Rebel with a Cause, there has to be a bad boy to make Deborah Foreman's female protagonist Julie's world catch on fire. And for the valley girl Julie, it was a punk, unwilling to don an Izod shirt or Members Only jacket.