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Mamie, mom Meryl spend part of 'Evening' | May 2007

Mamie Gummer and her three siblings don't make too much of a fuss when it comes to Mother's Day gifts. "Usually, it's cooking breakfast. And just normal stuff, like a picture frame." But she doesn't have to worry about a present this year. Although it won't arrive in theaters until June 29, she gives her parental unit, Meryl Streep, the ultimate gift by playing a younger version of the most Oscar-nominated actress ever in the nostalgic drama Evening.

They've appeared in the same film before. Mamie, at 18 months, was Streep's baby in 1986's Heartburn. This time, however, it was the daughter who was cast first, in the big-screen version of Susan Minot's best seller, adapted by Minot and author Michael Cunningham (The Hours). And Gummer has the bigger part. "My mother has just one scene at the end," says the Northwestern grad, 23, who has done off-Broadway and has a small role in The Hoax. "But it's a great scene and pulls the story together." The plot of Evening practically cries tearjerker: As Ann (Vanessa Redgrave, whose daughter Natasha Richardson also is in the film) lies in bed dying from cancer, her thoughts go back about 50 years as she recalls the wedding day of her best friend, Lila (Gummer), when she met the love of her life (Patrick Wilson, Little Children). Claire Danes is Redgrave as a young woman.

"Lila is a tennis-playing New England WASP," Gummer says. "Claire's character is a bohemian. But they have more similarities than they know." As for her movie mom, that position is filled by Glenn Close. "She is tough. A classic blueblood New Englander." Because Streep's scene with Redgrave was shot first, Gummer and Danes studied the dailies so they could mirror their older counterparts in a parallel flashback. The question New York-based Gummer hears the most is probably how having such an esteemed actress for a mom affects her own career. She tries to wave off such inquiries. "I'm just trying to do my thing and differentiate myself."

As for the rest of Streep's brood, son Henry, 27, is a musician; Grace, 21, and Louisa, 15, are both in school. Doesn't anyone want to take after their father, Don Gummer, a noted sculptor? "My poor dad," Mamie says, only half-seriously. "My youngest sister does have an eye for aesthetics and a skilled hand. She is very interested in fashion and design." That's, apparently, in spite of The Devil Wears Prada.

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