That Evening Sun

Hal Holbrook has enriched a hundred films in supporting roles, but he seldom gets to carry a picture on his own. Here’s he an old codger of 80 (he’s actually 85) who escapes from a retirement home and returns to his farm, to find his lawyer son has leased it out to a redneck, who he hates, and his family. He sets out on a campaign to evict them. The redneck is pretty awful, a lazy drunk collecting disability for a long-ago injury, a man who beats his wife and daughter, but the farmer is no prize, either. I looks like a simple set-up, but it’s more complex than that. Obviously the redneck must go, but what about the innocent victims? And what will the farmer do once he has the farm? He’s too old to take care of it. Unfortunately, the slow pace of it all and the really lousy ending spoiled it for me. Can’t recommend it.