‘That Evening Sun’

People are complicated in “That Evening Sun,” a bit of nerve-racking Southern Gothic that gives 84-year-old Hal Holbrook a role at least as juicy – if not quite so lovable – as that of Mark Twain.

Holbrook is Abner Meecham, who in the film’s opening moments becomes so bored with his Tennessee nursing home that he packs a bag and walks away, heading for the farm where he spent most of his life.

Unbeknownst to Abner, his lawyer son Paul (Walton Goggins, “The Shield”) has rented out the farm. Worse, the new tenant is Lonzo Choat (Ray McKinnon), a long-haired local loser who has never been able to hold a job for more than a few weeks.

Incensed to find his house occupied by “white trash,” Abner orders Choat, his wife and teenage daughter to get lost. When they don’t, he moves into an old sharecropper’s shack on the property with the intention of waiting them out.

Director Scott Teems’ screenplay – essentially a protracted battle of nerves – is painted in shades of gray. It’s hard to know whom to root for.

The most obvious villain is Choat, a jobless alcoholic not above using his fists on his family. But as his wife (Carrie Preston, “True Blood”) explains to Abner, this farm is Choat’s last best chance to turn his miserable life around.

That’s not enough to soften Abner’s animus. Learning that Choat hates dogs, Abner buys the noisiest mutt he can find and trains it to howl on command. He’s daring Choat to do something about it, and he has a revolver in case the oaf does just that.

Paul may be at fault for failing to apprise his father of his plans for the farm, but it’s also obvious that he has had enough of Abner’s cantankerousness. He accuses the old man of having abused both him and his late mother.

The only genuinely “open” characters here are Choat’s daughter (Mia Wasikowska, “Alice in Wonderland”), who strikes up a sparring acquaintance with the old coot living out back, and a neighboring farmer (Barry Corbin, absolutely terrific), who in some funny exchanges tries to steer Abner toward a more reasoned stance.

There’s much to admire here: the performances, the film’s lyrical look, the spare music (the movie’s title comes from an old Jimmie Rodgers tune about facing one’s mortality).

But “Evening Sun” is a tough, borderline unpleasant movie that keeps us on edge and waiting for something awful to happen. It may be honest, but, like its protagonist, it isn’t really likable.