THAT EVENING SUN
Written & Directed by Scott Teems, based on the short story "I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down" by William Gay
Produced by Terence Berry, Walton Goggins, Laura Smith & Ray McKinnon
Released by Freestyle Releasing
USA. 109 min. Rated PG-13
With Hal Holbrook, Ray McKinnon, Walton Goggins, Mia Waskikowska, Carrie Preston, Barry Corbin & Dixie Carter
 

Abner Meechum (Hal Holbrook) is about as stubborn an 80-year-old man as they come. After breaking his hip, he’s put in a nursing home by his son, Paul, but Abner decides one day to just leave and go back to his Tennessee farm, which he’s maintained his whole life. But as (bad) luck would have it, Paul has leased the property to Lonzo Choat and his family, all of whom, most politely, could be called white trash. Abner wants them off the property, immediately, on the matter of principle that the farm is his, and he won’t let it go to “those rednecks.” A tug of war ensues after Abner settles in to the adjacent shack and the two men, Abner and Lonzo, just wait for the other to make the wrong move.

As with last year’s old/cranky/lonely old man drama Gran Torino, we’re given a story of an old man who just won’t surrender, led by an actor with the precise presence and gravitas to give the film dramatic punch. Holbrook might not be as iconic as Clint Eastwood, but his performance is one of the joys of the year. In the first shot we see him standing in his room at the nursing home and staring out with pursed lips and a cold stare, and we know right away who this guy is. He’s the “angry old man.”

In practically every scene, Holbrook deepens the character. Abner isn’t a bad man, he doesn’t dislike everyone in the Choat family (he has a few moments with teenager Pamela, who, out of curiosity, comes to talk to him, and there’s a slight bond made). In some scenes, Holbrook doesn’t need to say anything, and yet he conveys everything. He’s also very funny in his battle of wills with Lonzo, which involves a dog Abner picked up that won’t stop barking. His bitter and sarcastic tone makes the scenes tense and amusing (the payback of this, without saying too much, is a riot). It’s subtle and straightforward work from Holbrook, and like Eastwood’s, it’s the kind of performance he should be happy to retire on, if he wishes.

As for the rest of the production, it’s hit or miss. The hits include a handful of the supporting players, such as Barry Corbin (the old uncle from No Country for Old Men) as Abner’s only neighbor-friend, and Mia Wasikowska (of the upcoming Alice in Wonderland) as Pamela Choat. The cinematography by Rodney Taylor takes in the lovely farmland and gritty backwoods of Tennessee, reminding one of the visual poetry found in Sling Blade. Not so great are some of the other players, who take their characters to their one-dimensional extremes. (Actually, Ray McKinnon’s Lonzo does have a moment of redemption, but it’s so late in the film McKinnon can’t do anything with him by then.)

Despite the praise for Scott Teems’s screenplay, which won the Emerging Narrative Screenplay Award at the IFP Market a few years ago, it’s his direction more than the script that impresses. Except for the character of Abner, no one is given much depth, and especially irksome are two flashback scenes where Abner, talking to his dog, describes his wife and how she died. It’s not Holbrook’s fault, but it stops the movie cold, where just hints of the past would have been enough. Jack Gattenella
November 6, 2009