With A Time for Sunset, director Thomas L. Callaway has spliced Richard Donner’s Assassins and Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth cinematic DNA together into a taut, chamber piece of suspense that builds in complexity as a duel of words and wits evolves.
The game begins as John (Don Worley) checks into a hotel, gets to his room, and begins unpacking. He checks in with his wife, Susan (Stephanie Parker), and daughter, Kirby (Miriam Spumpkin), telling them that his insurance seminar was as exciting as an insurance seminar can be, but he’s mostly looking forward to seeing them when he gets home from his business trip. See, John is on the road one last time. He’s got a young family, and plans to retire and spend as much time with them as they can handle. Just one more job to finish. Then John unpacks a sniper rifle. Why? John is a contract killer.
Next, John gets in with his employer. Giving a status report, stating he is on site and ready, but early. While he waits for his mark to arrive, John receives a phone call from a “phantom caller” with a Russian accent. Then John sees a red dot hovering over his heart. Turns out he is not being allowed to retire so easily, and a rival assassin has decided to make a name for himself by “sun-setting” a veteran of the game. But not before he has a little fun. What follows is a duel of dialogue which is at times funny, poignant as well as being cleverly constructed, as John’s back and forth with the phantom assassin carries the movie with its intrigue and intelligence as each man seeks to outsmart the other.
“John checks into a hotel, gets to his room, and begins unpacking… then unpacks a sniper rifle.”
Suddenly, the stakes are bumped up to electrifying as the phantom assassin introduces a new piece into the chess game as a prostitute named Julie (Jaclyn Hales) with a bomb strapped to her chest. Now John must save the girl, outwit his opponent, take down his mark, and get home to his family. All the while, John is informed that the phantom will blow up the hotel if he tries to leave, and as an added incentive, they show John footage of someone watching his wife and daughter.
A Time for Sunset is powerful indie filmmaking. Taking the bare essentials and an extremely well-crafted screenplay, moody lighting, and a pulse-pounding score, and compounding them into a diorama of awesomeness. What is a verbal dance between protagonist and foe is heightened as hotel staff, other guests, and various outside forces interject as the hour for blood arrives. Both John and the phantom assassin probe each other, hoping to tip the scales in their favor, one way or another.
A Time for Sunset is at once both a concentrated thriller and a psychological character study. As mysteries of the narrative unravel and interruptions in the battle of the killers emerge, the film banks and swerves its way to a final act that’ll leave your jaw on the floor. In a word, exemplary.
"…a taut, chamber piece of suspense..."
