Rodney Taylor
Hal Holbrook stars as Abner Meecham in director Scott Teems' "That Evening Sun," an Indie Memphis Film Festival winner.
A tough, thought-provoking movie that could be described as a sort of Southern Gothic "Gran Torino," "That Evening Sun" was in danger of being overlooked after its successful festival run last year, which included a win for Best Narrative Feature at October's Indie Memphis Film Festival.
Like its leathery protagonist, however, "That Evening Sun" refused to go gently into the night. Buoyed by waves of good reviews and the exploitable presence in the cast of young Mia Wasikowska, star of the current 3D smash "Alice in Wonderland," the movie recently began returning to theaters, distributed by Freestyle Releasing.
Rodney Taylor
Hal Holbrook stars as Abner Meecham in director Scott Teems' "That Evening Sun," an Indie Memphis Film Festival winner.
Abner Meecham, an aging Tennessee farmer discarded to a nursing facility by his lawyer son, flees the old folks home and catches a ride back ...
Rating: PG-13 for brief strong language, some violence, sexual content and thematic elements
Length: 110 minutes
Released: November 6, 2009 NY
Cast: Hal Holbrook, Ray McKinnon, Walton Goggins, Mia Wasikowska, Carrie Preston
Director: Scott Teems
Writer: William Gay, Scott Teems
"That Evening Sun" opens today at Malco's Ridgeway Four. In an appearance organized by Indie Memphis, co-star Ray McKinnon will be present at tonight's 7:10 screening, to introduce the film and answer questions afterward.
A talented, rangy, physically striking character actor (somebody cast him as Abe Lincoln, please), McKinnon, who lives in Arkansas, is a producer of the film. As a writer-director, he won an Oscar for the Best Live-Action Short Film of 2001, "The
Accountant," but he is perhaps most recognized now for his role as Michael Oher's high school football coach in "The Blind Side."
Adapted by screenwriter-director Scott Teems from a 2002 short story by William Gay, "That Evening Sun" stars Hal Holbrook as cantankerous Abner Meecham, an "80-year-old man with a bum hip and a weak heart" who slips away from his retirement home to return to his old farmhouse, now occupied by the family of a mean-tempered "redneck" (McKinnon).
That premise — along with the movie's picture-postcard title, borrowed from Jimmie Rodgers' classic 1928 recording, "Blue Yodel No. 3" — suggests that "That Evening Sun" might be an autumnal life-affirmer of the type produced for TV's Hallmark Hall of Fame, or a triumph-of-the-old-timer audience-rouser, in the manner of Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino." But the movie, shot in East Tennessee, confounds the viewer's expectations. (No wonder Patterson Hood of the Drive-By Truckers -- who brings a bold and honest slant to Southern song themes -- was enticed to contribute several numbers to the soundtrack.)
In fact, "That Evening Sun" discomfits moviegoers by sabotaging the pleasing "Gran Torino" narrative strategy of confrontation, humiliation (of the young and strong by the underdog old and "weak") and redemption. As the story progresses, the self-centered Abner becomes less likable and "cute," and begins to betray the moviegoer's eager early investment of loyalty and trust. Meanwhile, McKinnon's layabout Lonzo Choat — whose very name is distasteful, suggesting a shoat, or young pig — becomes progressively pathetic, if not entirely sympathetic.
Coming on the heels of Holbrook's Oscar-nominated supporting performance in "Into the Wild," "That Evening Sun" represents part two of a late-career renaissance in quality big-screen roles for the always-busy actor. Thanks to Holbrook and Teems, Abner Meecham is one of the more fully developed characters to be seen onscreen in a long time. As an early scene involving a lost watch suggests, Abner refuses to accept the fact that he is a man out of time, which may explain (if not excuse) his stubbornness and anger.
The cast also includes Walton Goggins ("The Shield"), who helped produce the film through the Ginny Mule Pictures company he operates with McKinnon; Wasikowska, as Choat's nymphlike daughter; Carrie Preston (of HBO's "True Blood") as Choat's wife; and — in a few flashback scenes — Holbrook's wife, former Memphian Dixie Carter.
— John Beifuss, 529-2394
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