That Evening Sun (2009)

Simply A Masterpiece

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An aging Tennessee farmer returns to his homestead and must confront a family betrayal, the reappearance of an old enemy, and the loss of his farm.This is the perfect example of how to write an old bull can against the young bull one. Holebrook's character doesn't want trouble, just his pride and the right to go on living the way he once did. He doesn't have much left, but pride. The movie does a great job of making us care for Holebrook, something that was hard to pull off consistently. Hal Holebrook is magnificent, and Oscar worthy here in his portrayal of Abner Meecham. It was hard to pull off, but Holebrook manages to maintain likability along with his grouchy, potentially off-putting role. There's never a moment where we don't sympathize with him, even when he pushes the limits, we manage to emphasize with his actions. I've not seen Holebrook perform a better role than this one. Ray McKinnon is excellent as the hot-shot antagonist, wanting to take over the farm. You'll hate him, and possibly even understand his actions in some cases. Walter Goggins is very good as the ungrateful son of Holebrook's, he did well.Bottom line. The Sundance Film Festival struck gold with this one, and you will too. A must see 9 ½ 10

Nice movie, the old man is a likable character, still is a 'not very nice' person. It seems he was not really nice to his family either. The name of the guy he is trying to throw away from his home is Choat, kind of reminds me of the word "Tchort" that means Devil in Slavic languages: "Tchort is a Slavonic word (Russian Чёрт, Czech and Slovak Čert, Ukrainian and Belarusian Чорт) meaning Devil" Source:wikipedia Made me wonder if its allegoric and the man was trying to overcome and win his demons instead. Imagine the home being empty and not finding the courage to go inside, that overflowning home of memories of his wife... Finally he overcame his guilts and found peace. Just another point of view, food for thought ;)

That Evening Sun begins as many geezer-escapes-from-nursing-home movies, with 80-year old Abner Meecham (Hal Holbrook) packing his bag and heading back to his old farm. Once there, he finds that his lawyer son has rented the place, inevitably, to a family he loathes and holds in low regard, the Choats. Even though the Choats have legal right to be there (a valid lease), Abner tries to run them off, and, failing that, he stays on in a worker's shack on the property to harass them. He does sort of befriend the teen Choat daughter, and actually saves her and her mother from a beating with a garden hose by papa Choat.Holbrook is good, as always, but Abner is a nasty old cuss who seems to thrive on being mean. In the course of the movie, we learn that not only is Abner not entirely a good guy, but Choat is not entirely a bad guy.The problems here are several: Abner is relentlessly mean and we cannot grow to like him, his scenes with teen Pamela Choat are few and brief and the relationship goes nowhere, Dixie Carter's appearances in flashbacks as Abner's dead wife afford her no lines, and Abner's employing a noisy dog to irritate Choat must end in the animals death. For some reason, viewers are more outraged by the death of a dog than by that of humans, and this scene is played directly to that idiosyncrasy.The 'story' ends with Abner no better off than at the start, the Choats no better off - in other words it was all for naught. No resolution, no real story, irritating characters, missed opportunities, very bad ending. One to miss.

What a film.! Anyone who has experienced elderly members of the family being stubborn, or old fashioned without obvious reason, then this film will ring true.Although members of our family/community age, and reach the final stages of their life does not make them an outcast, it does not make them less worthy of ourselves.This film make the valid point that, yes, life does indeed go on, but at the same time, memories still live too, and if someone is still breathing the free air we all breath today, then they are still entitled to live out their life, and spend their living days how they see fit.Without spoiling this film, or should I say without giving out any spoilers, basically, if you have come to that stage in your life where you have had to make the very difficult decision to put your mother, or father in a care home, watch this film.! Although your father, or mother maybe aging, and to you, look somewhat out of control, they are now, you should be listening to them more carefully, even muffled speech, of rambled they may sound, listen to them, memories live on.This film is all about pride, being faithful to ones past, mistakes, and choices. One may make path to their own siblings which gives them the job of good fortune, but at the same time, they question you when your old, and in many peoples eyes "Past it". This film opens the eyes of the unforgiving.!I cried watching this film, and Im 40 years young. Maybe I related to this film more than most, but at the same time, I had to write about this film, and how it impacted myself alone.Enjoy, its a great piece of film making, and Hal, is at his best in this. We all remember him from his earlier pieces, usually in a courtroom.