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Has there been a great feature made about the opioid crisis in America? Director Braden King is determined to answer the question “yes” with The Evening Hour, written by Elizabeth Palmore and based on the novel by Carter Sickels. And while he bites off a bit more than he can chew here, there’s a good deal that resonates.

First Reformed‘s Philip Ettinger stars as Cole, a nursing home aide who moonlights as a drug dealer. Only, he seems to have something of a moral code about the meds he’s slinging. Sure, he’s keeping a lot of townspeople addicted but he’s doing it responsibly, legitimately supporting some who can’t afford pills they need and keeping others safe from the much-worse Everett (Marc Menchaca). He carries on a half-assed relationship with Charlotte (Stacy Martin) and a general sense of calm. This all crumbles once Terry Rose...

, Braden King’s “The Evening Hour” shines on a rural Appalachian town like a golden ray of fading sunlight; as dark as the story gets, this hyper-empathetic film never fails to see its characters as decent people trying to make the best of a bad situation. This is the kind of movie that opens with someone reading a Bible verse over a shot of mountain grass swaying in the wind as the first woozy strains of Boxhead Ensemble’s score prepare to take your breath away.

Which isn’t to say that “The Evening Hour” elides the awfulness of the epidemic; that same opening shot pans across the landscape in time to see an ominous explosion in the distance. Every frame is saturated with a sense of quiet desperation. The rival drug pushers inevitably pull their guns on each other, and even the kindest intentions have a way of souring into sadness.

A quietly powerful portrait of a young man forced to make impossible decisions to try to live decently in a landscape torn apart by forces far larger than himself, “The Evening Hour” is both an empathetic and sobering drama. Taking place in a mostly forgotten corner of Appalachia dominated by coal mining and rampant opioid use, “The Evening Hour” is the story of Cole Freeman (Philip Ettinger), who by day tenderly takes care of the elderly and by night deals prescription drugs according to his own moral code. Director Braden King, working from a novel by Carter Sickels, spends the rest of the film showing the complexity of Cole’s code and how the return of an old friend to his small town, Terry Rose (Cosmo Jarvis), pushes that code to its breaking point.

Read More: Here Are Our Most Anticipated Films from the 2020 Sundance Film Festival

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Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The Evening Hour tells the story of Cole Freeman, who maintains an uneasy equilibrium in his declining Appalachian mining town, looking after the old and infirm in the community while selling their excess painkillers to local addicts to help make ends meet. When an old friend, Terry Rose, returns with plans […]...

Whether capturing or creating a world, the objects onscreen tell as much of a story as the people within it. Whether sourced or accidental, insert shot or background detail, what prop or piece of set decoration do you find particularly integral to your film? What story does it tell? The Evening Hour tells the story of Cole Freeman, who maintains an uneasy equilibrium in his declining Appalachian mining town, looking after the old and infirm in the community while selling their excess painkillers to local addicts to help make ends meet. When an old friend, Terry Rose, returns with plans […]...

Philip Ettinger, Cosmo Jarvis, Stacy Martin, Lili Taylor star.

UK-based sales agent Film Constellation has boarded Braden King’s Us drama The Evening Hour, ahead of the film’s world premiere at Sundance on January 27.

The company is handling international sales on the title, with Cinetic representing North American rights.

The film is based on Carter Sickels’ 2012 novel of the same name, with a script written by Elizabeth Palmore.

It follows Cole, a nursing home worker whose double life as a small-time drug dealer who cares for his customers is threatened by the arrival of his childhood friend Terry Rose.

Exclusive: Lili Taylor, whose credits include American Crime, Hemlock Grove and Almost Human, has signed on as one of the stars of the indie film, The Evening Hour. Braden King is directing the feature, adapted from Carter Sickels’ 2012 novel, with production taking place in and around Harlan, Kentucky.

Taylor replaces Cynthia Nixon, who was originally attached to the project. Philip Ettinger (First Reformed), Stacy Martin (Vox Lux), Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) and Kerry Bishé (The Romanoffs) also star.

Written by Elizabeth Palmore, the story follows Cole Freeman, a young man who maintains an uneasy equilibrium in his rural Appalachian town, looking after the old and infirm in the community and selling their excess painkillers to local addicts. But when his old friend Terry Rose returns with plans to start his own drug operation, Cole is forced to take action to save the close-knit fabric of family, friendship, land, and history.