Review of That Evening Sun (2009) by Cem "Regi" "Pixelmannen" . — 20 May 2011

I wanted to like this film more, and I even had set my expectations low so I *could* like it as much as I wanted to. Yet, I gave it three stars--all for its craftsmanship--and no additional stars, because it lacked the beauty that I was watching for.

While Holbrook's performance was astounding IMO (although I can't shake the sense that has has begun estrogen injections in the scenes with Dixie Carter--that might be the fault of the make-up artist), I suppose the one thing his character's development lacked was a sense of peace, which in the end seemed more like resignation. That alone was enough to make the movie less than memorable for me. The daughter was overly precocious, or perhaps not precocious enough for a 16-year-old. Ray McKinnon's character was villainous or tragic, I don't know which, but gave me no reason for empathic identification.

The redeeming quality was direction and cinematography (and writing/dialogue wasn't bad, though it had two or three endings). The scene of the tenant's house burning recalled nicely the burning scene of 'Days of Heaven,' which I have lately been thinking about with Malick's new film coming out.

Teems did a good job overall. I'm excited by his work. But this movie was a downer, and that's probably why it didn't do more in theaters.