Tim Blake Nelson in a scene from “Old Henry” (2021).

While Westerns have never gone away, the genre isn’t nearly as popular as it once was. But this year, fans have a few choices to wet their whistles, including the captivating “Old Henry.” Tim Blake Nelson takes a starring turn as the eponymous Henry, a grizzled old farmer in the Oklahoma Territory at the turn of the 20th century who just wants to keep his son, Wyatt (Gavin Lewis) safe from the world and tend to his homestead.

The teenage Wyatt is constantly at odds with his father’s overprotective nature, which causes the two to butt heads several times.

Wyatt claims to hate Henry, wishing to leave the farm as soon as he is able.

Trouble comes a-brewing for the duo when a riderless horse shows up at their home with blood smeared on the saddle. When Henry goes looking for the poor rider, he finds Curry (Scott Haze) near-dead in a ditch next to a satchel full of cash. Reluctantly, Henry brings Curry (and the satchel) home with him and expertly tends to a gunshot wound.

When Curry awakens and informs them that he’s a lawman on the run from a trio of hardened bank robbers (from whom he took the money), Henry is skeptical. Then the three men led by the ruthless and loquacious Ketchum (Stephen Dorff) track Curry to the house and begin asking Henry all sorts of questions. All pose more and more mysteries, the biggest being: Just who is Henry?

Nelson’s performance is understated and gripping. His unassuming stature and body language perfectly juxtapose the violent life Henry is clearly trying to move past.

But that past has a way of sneaking out in little nods here and there before the ultimate showdown at the end of any Western worth its salt. His pale complexion lends itself to his ghostly existence — the man he was before we meet him is dead. What is left is something else entirely.

Dorff feels a bit one-note, and the typical bad guys aren’t as developed as they could have been, but it’s not really them we’re interested in. We’re interested in Henry and Curry, and if the truth of both of their pasts will eventually be heard.

Lewis does an adequate job of walking the line of an angsty teenager before he gets too far into the annoying category (though occasionally he trips into it) and Haze brings out more depth at the very end than he’s had all along.

Even Trace Atkins (the second country singer in a movie I’ve seen in as many months) fulfills his small role well.

The film oozes out Western from every pore, from the cold lighting to the general feeling of griminess that a farm run by a widower would probably look like. It all feels very lived in.

Written and directed by Potsy Ponciroli, the film is petite in what it encompasses, with little sub-plotting going on and a steady pace that keeps its petite runtime trotting along. With elements of an old Western at its heart, mixed with the new stylings of an indie film, “Old Henry” comes out of nowhere and grips you when you least expect it.

“Old Henry”

99 minutes

No MPA rating

3.5 stars