In the late 1980s, noted theatrical director Andre Gregory assembled a group of friends and actors and began rehearsing a new translation of Anton Chekhovs Uncle Vanya by David Mamet, not with any specific performance in mind but as a way of exploring the beauty and precise construction of Chekhovs play. Louis Malle, a friend of Gregorys, became interested in the project and spent two weeks filming Gregorys actors as they performed Uncle Vanya without an audience in a run-down theater near New Yorks Times Square. In these performances, the line between theater and real life is blurred as conversations between actors -- juggling take-out cups of coffee and wearing street clothes -- slowly grow into a superb performance of Chekhovs classic, with Wallace Shawn as Vanya, Julianne Moore as Yelena, Brooke Smith as Sonya, and Larry Pine as Dr. Astrov. With a certain sad irony, this marvelously realized adaptation of a play about people wondering what theyve done with their lives proved to be Louis Malles final film; he died of cancer in 1995. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide