The Sunset Limited (2011)

Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, Samuel L. Jackson

Director: Tommy Lee Jones

The Lowdown: In this HBO TV movie adapted from the Cormac McCarthy play, two nameless characters, only called Black (Jackson) and White (Jones), have a lengthy discussion about the existence of God, the meaning of human suffering and everything in between after the devoutly religious Black stops the depressed and atheistic White from killing himself on the tracks of a train called The Sunset Limited.

My Take: Cormac McCarthy is widely believed by many, me included, to be one of the best authors of the past half century. His western novel Blood Meridian was amongst Time's 100 best novels published since the magazine's fist issue and his post apocalyptic tale The Road won the Pulitzer prize a few years ago. Both those works represent McCarthy's nihilistic and grim worldview and filter them through certain genres to make them the backbone of compelling stories.

The Sunset Limited, however, lacks these filters and strips down drama to its bare essentials. We have two men. One black. One white. One a man of great religious conviction and limited education. The other a suicidal professor on the brink of oblivion who shares McCarthy's bleak world view only cranked up to eleven and devoid of any hope whatsoever. What follows is basically a 90 minute chess match between two men dead set in their ways.

Its often difficult for a dialogue driven film with so little narrative incident to actually get made. "My Dinner with Andre" is a great example that comes to mind and I was certainly reminded of it as these two characters shared a battle of words around a kitchen table. However, this isn't two friends bantering along, rather this is "My Dinner with Andre" meets Ingmar Bergman's "Winter Light" for the working class. While I would gladly travel to a theater for this, its hard to imagine many people flocking to the multiplex to watch two old codgers wax philosophical about some of the grimmest philosophical questions. As such, its probably best this was produced by HBO as this way more people will see it than in what I'm sure would be a very limited theatrical release.

While a theatrical release would have been nice, the lack of one is what allows "The Sunset Limited" to come to life uninhibited. Were it produced by a big film studio chances are the producers would have asked for the film to be opened up and contain more scenes outside the kitchen would distract from the film's singular focus.

As for the acting, I cannot praise the two leads enough. Samuel L. Jackson is perfectly cast as Black and brings a terrific fire and brimstone quality to the religious debate. However, Jackson never lets Black become a caricature and thanks to McCarthy we are able to sympathize with his view and he never makes the character a bland stereotype even if some in the audience, McCarthy included, may not agree with his views.

Likewise, Tommy Lee Jones, who also produced and directed, is entirely convincing as the professor who has lost his faith in just about everything. Jones has a sadness in his face and carries himself as a world weary man who has given up all hope and has given into total nihilism. While the character's views are grim the script makes it easy for us to sympathize and understand how he's come to this point in his life.

These two performances compliment each other perfectly and these two actors bring so much believability to each line of dialogue that you can't help but be fascinated and hang onto every word of it no matter how grim. As expected, there are no easy answers given and it's up to the audience to make conclusions but the film should make for interesting conversation.

Best Moment: Samuel L. Jackson recounting complete with hand motions and in graphic detail a prison fight that led to his conversion as a befuddled Tommy Lee Jones sits dumbstruck.

In Short: "The Sunset Limited" is not for everyone but those who are interested will be fascinated by its two lead performances and its frank look at philosophy, something that is not often discussed in films today.

10 out of 10