Chris Evans can't help being the good guy in Before We Go clip

Some time between filming Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron in 2013, Chris Evans found the energy to direct his first movie. In Before We Go, there are no Infinity stones, helicarriers, or tantalizing post-credit scenes. It’s a relatively simple tale of a man and woman, who find themselves down in the dumps on a cold night in New York City.

Evans plays Nick, a jazz trumpet player busking in the belly of Grand Central Station. Alice Eve is Brooke, a married art dealer who lost her purse and breaks her phone while failing to catch the last train to Connecticut. He valiantly offers to help her get home or help; she begrudgingly lets him.

When the film debuted at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, the immediate comparison was Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, but Before We Go‘s darker New York setting reflects more mature characters who are perhaps more jaded about life and love than Jesse and Celine were when they first met. Brooke’s marriage might be in trouble, Nick is still recovering from a recent heartbreak.

In this scene, he tries to cheer her up after she confides that she fears that her rocky marriage might be beyond repair. She’s vulnerable, he’s a gentleman. Seems like Evans cast the right guy.

Before We Go, which is available on VOD, opens in theaters on Sept. 4.