Cormac McCarthy's two-man play, and this minimalist film adaptation of it, centers on two male characters: "Black" (Samuel L. Jackson), an evangelical Christian from Louisiana, and "White" (Tommy Lee Jones, who also directs), an urbane and atheistic professor. As the film begins, the former has just saved the life of the latter, who was attempting to commit suicide by throwing himself in front of a train. The duo have returned to Black's tenement apartment in an area White describes as a "moral leper colony." There, a 90-minute conversation plays out. The topics are diverse, ranging from culture to family to Black's stay in prison, but at the heart of it lies the two men's disparate views on faith and life. Black is a diehard Christian and optimist who believes in concepts such as "brotherhood" and "life everlasting," and he insists people are in search of God's love. White, on the other hand, is a self-described "professor of darkness," a cynical man haunted by what he perceives as a society in decay.

Behind the camera, Jones (who made an electrifying directorial debut with The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada) doesn't do much to disguise the fact this film is based on a play. There are no significant attempts to expand the story beyond one room, and even the camera movements are subtle. The experience of watching The Sunset Limited is indeed claustrophobic, but the experience is also valuable thanks to two expert performances and because of the language provided by Cormac McCarthy (No Country for Old Men, The Road), one of the greatest and most fascinating living writers. Samuel L. Jackson and Tommy Lee Jones breathe life and the unpredictable zest of human frailty into characters who could be mere ciphers, featureless purveyors of McCarthy's post-dorm-room contemplation of philosophy and theology. And the tug-of-war for our souls between romanticism and nihilism (and everything in-between) is surely a struggle, a conversation, every viewer can relate to, and the devastating conclusion to which The Sunset Limited builds will inevitably provoke a great deal of thought.

B+