Undertow (2004)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Chris Munn (Jamie Bell) lives in poverty on a pig farm with his father John (Dermot Mulroney) and brother Tim in rural Drees County, Georgia. He gets shot at and arrested when he goes over to see Lila (Kristen Stewart) and breaks a window. They are visited by John's estranged brother Deel (Josh Lucas) who just got out of prison. It turns out that Deel is looking for a stash of gold coins owned by their father which he suspects was taken by John. Also John's dead wife was Deel's girlfriend to begin with.This is a slow moody southern-atmospheric movie. It takes a long time to get going. The lack of intensity in the first half of the movie is a problem. There is enough in the plot to give some tension. Then it becomes a surreal realism journey. There is a poverty chic beauty to the movie like some sort of southern parable. Jamie Bell shows some quality work. It's a bit too slow at times but it has some interesting sections.

IMDb suggested this movie to me, and so I figured, why not, it looks pretty decent. According to this site, this movie is a drama thriller about a father, his two sons, and their uncle when things go awry. In the most basic sense, that is true. The problem? A thriller should thrill. It's not enough that something bad occurs, you should be on the edge of your seat, panicked about that bad thing. Throughout this entire film, I could barely muster interest, never mind panic. The characters rarely show any strong emotion. Even in scenes where you would expect great anger or sorrow, they seem relatively apathetic and rarely change facial expressions. There is no twist, no mystery, just 100 minutes of talking calmly, a few minutes of running, and a few minutes of fighting. This movie is by far the greatest let down I've had for a film in a very long time. If you are extremely patient and are able to connect with the most unbelievable characters, then by all means, go ahead and watch it. If not, don't waste your time. I certainly wish I hadn't. 3/10

Undertow was a film that passed me by many years ago,however I was in the video store the other day and it caught my eye,needless to say the plot looked interesting,so I picked it up. Between the country side atmosphere that's so rich you can almost taste it,to the gripping suspense,I knew I was in for something great. Undertow is like a surreal world only it takes place in the Country,showing off a close but disoriented family,who have gone through quite a bit in there lives. Chris our lead hero is a troublesome,yet likable fellow who always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,gunning for affection from his dad and of course girl troubles. Tim his younger brother has an illness,with a strange taste for things like Paint,etc. They all have there unusual attributes,but they are all perfectly developed. I love a film with slow building tension,it just makes the payoff that much better,and this film didn't disappoint in that regard. Things really started to heat up when Uncle Deel came into the picture. He's naturally restrained at the start of the film,we know nothing about him,don't really have the urge to,and slowly but surely what we find out becomes truly unsettling.Undertow proves you don't need a big budget to provide excellent suspense. Unlike a lot of big budgeted suspense oriented films,Undertow Doesen't become stagnant at the worst possible times,it has the perfect flow. Everyone was absolutely fabulous,however one of the biggest reasons this film is as good as it is,has to be the wonderful chemistry between Jamie Bell|Chris| and Devon Alan|Tim|. We care about them,root for them,and most importantly we want them to get revenge on Uncle Deel|Josh Lucas|. Undertow is just a breath of fresh air,it's inventive,suspenseful and downright delightful.Performances. Jamie Bell is magnificent as Chris. I haven't seen a performance from an actor of his age to be that good,in some time. Without the proper writing,his character could've easily been a one dimensional mouthy prick type part who becomes likable. Luckily for us, Joe Conway avoids that cliché and gives us a hero to love. We can sense his fear and his pain,however what makes him as great as he is was he didn't buckle under pressure,I was rooting for him all the way. Devon Alan has to be the perfect kid actor. He put his all into this film,he wasn't one of those kid actors looking to say "Hi Mom look at me I'm on TV" No...he was the real deal. He was truly fascinating to watch,he actually made me care about him and for a kid actor his age,that's a tough feat to pull off. Josh Lucas is absolutely frightening as Uncle Deel. He's consistently unsettling,unpredictable and most importantly disturbing. The scary thing is he's able to be charming while being a greedy sociopath. Believe me when I say this you won't be able to get his performance out of your head. Dermot Mulroney is unexpectedly pretty good as the Father. He was sympathetic without overdoing it,I enjoyed him. Kristen Stewart Doesen't really have a noteworthy role,or anything of that sort,but she was cute as a button and played her role well.Bottom Line-Undertow is one of the most delightful surprises I have seen in quite a while. It's nice to watch a film not knowing what's gonna happen during any point in the duration of the film. Simply put it's a rich atmospheric treat that you all should indulge in,you won't be ashamed i'm sure!.9/10

David Gordon Green explores the story in Undertow with an intention to tell the story, but there's also an intention to explore the spaces his actors inhabit, or run to, or from, and occasionally with the lyricism of a grungy street poet. This isn't to say the film is pretentious; it can be enjoyed by those who just want a good, harrowing chase movie. Yet it asks a little more for an audience complacent with the norm in Hollywood, used to the conflict being simplistic with respect to the characterizations. Its presentation calls attention to a director attempting to find the thematic beats through what could otherwise be a conventional ride. It's also no mistake to make the connection to films of the 70s, or specifically Terence Malick's austere visual approach; Malick is credited as producer, so it's bound to have some informal mark of his own somewhere.It's really a tragedy of the rural family, where a single father (Mulroney) raising two kids (Bell and Alan), the older one something of a troublemaker, constantly brought in to the cops. When the father's brother (a perfect antagonist in Lucas) gets out of prison and comes to visit, it's more than a friendly family call; greed and vengeance bring him there, and a horrible incident occurs that sends the two children running away, now with their uncle in tow. He's after some valuable old gold coins- family heirlooms or sacred Mexican lot, depending on what story is to be believed- and nothing will stop him. Meanwhile, the two kids (the younger of the two pretty sick most often) are left to their own devices, looking for work, hiding in junkyards, or with the help of fellow underworld travelers.Aside from that, which is the basic plot, a lot of Undertow sways between tense and taut drama and action, with a couple of really visceral fights and bits of violence, and an understated character study. There's the performances that feel right in the thick of it, with Bell giving it all in a breakout role. But it's just... hard to explain the sensibility that gives this an edge over other dramas out there. The setting is one thing, where for the most part (with a few exceptions) Green doesn't succumb to total clichés with these southern hobos and backwoods folk (or, at the least, there's a humanism caught by having what would appear to be non-actors in roles like convenience store clerks and tow-truck drivers). And also it's the cinematography, which is clear and cool and hand-held for some subjective impact, plus the eerie, unusual score by Philip Glass.All of these punctuations on a story that is dark and compelling are abound, but it's also this bond between the two brothers, and the memories that they share and how memories in general work into the narrative, that score Green success. It's about mood as much as plot, about sorrow and anger and fear and all these things, and it's never something to scoff as too artsy-fartsy. It's just about right.