Taking a pop-culture icon and flipping it on its head is a favorite pastime of young film directors. In 1986 David Lynch took his boy-scout memories and essentially, in his own words, sent "The Hardy Boys" to hell with "Blue Velvet." Likewise, with a bit of Terrance Malick inspired poeticism, director David Gordon Green sends the good old Duke Boys to hell with "Undertow." Josh Lucas is effectively menacing in a "Night of the Hunter" kind of way as the recently released from prison brother of the stoic Dermot Mulroney, who has secluded himself and his two sons from the rest of the world on a hog farm following the death of his wife (whom was previously involved with Lucas' character). Some family folklore involving a hidden stash of gold coins sends Lucas' ex-con on a rampage that ends with the tracking of the young brothers on the run through rural American Gothic hell on earth. There's a lot to fault in a film like this, but also a lot to treasure if you give it the time. Jamie Bell and Devon Alan as the two brothers are very convincing and easy to route for, and some directorial flourishes from Green and nice character acting from Lucas keep the film fresh and original even as it channels past classics from Malick ("Badlands"), Lynch ("Blue Velvet"), and the "Night of the Hunter." There's also a score from my favorite minimalist composer Philip Glass. All in all, not a bad way for a film buff to spend their evening.
Add a Review
-
WriterDave9 July 2005
-
ThrownMuse1 February 2005John (Dermot Mulroney) is a single father living in backwoods Georgia with his two sons, teenaged Chris (Jamie Bell) and younger Tim (Devon Alan). Their quiet and routine lives are disrupted with the arrival of Deel (Josh Lucas), John's estranged brother. They decide to try to work things out and become a family, but competitiveness gets the best of the two men, secrets are revealed, and this quickly leads to horrific violence. The two kids escape the situation only to find themselves being hunted across the state.
The opening credits have a 70s Dukes of Hazzard feel (ostensibly the filmmaker's way of letting us know in which decade this story is set, as the isolated existence of the family gives no indication) that includes random freeze-frames. This is an early clue that this movie is going to be a unique experience. The freeze-frames become distracting (and seemingly arbitrary) when they return later interspersed throughout the film, but they help to loosen up the exciting (but excruciating!) introduction. The cinematography throughout this film is absolutely gorgeous and makes rural Georgia appear to be some sort of poverty-stricken fantasy land.
The performances are excellent. Mulroney and Lucas, two typical supporting Hollywood heartthrobs that some might say are miscast, actually play well off of each other and are very believable as brothers. The child actors are phenomenal, which is important as the story belongs to these two boys who are suddenly faced with violence that changes their lives. The plot borders on a twisted fairytale--it even involves gold coins! This seems silly at times, but considering this movie is told through the perspective of two young boys, it is somehow fitting.
The movie is at times quirky and filled with charming weirdness. Tim, in particular, is a fascinating character that has some sort of eating disorder where his body rejects food but craves things like paint, mud, and worms. The supporting characters the boys meet on their journey are equally bizarre. Some scenes come across as ridiculous or absurd, but Undertow is a film that is rich in both symbolism and metaphor and it is necessary to look for the deeper meaning of such scenes.
Alternately charming and disturbing, Undertow is a powerful film about the horrors of betrayal and family violence, and the beauty of forgiveness. Highly recommended, but be warned that the violence is graphic and very difficult to watch.
My Rating: 8/10 -
claudio_carvalho14 January 2007In the country of Drees County, the widow hard worker John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) lives in a simple rural isolated property with his rebel and troubled son Chris (Jamie Bell) and his sick son Tin (Devon Alan) and no friends. When his brother Deel Munn (Josh Lucas) unexpectedly arrives in his house on probation, John welcomes him. However, the real intentions of Deel lead the family to a tragedy, forcing the boys to leave home.
"Undertow" is a low paced movie, with a short story, great development of characters and excellent performances. There are no big surprises along the story and in spite of the introduction of the film inducing that it is based on a true event, I have not found any reference in Internet about this murder. My vote is seven.
Title (Brazil): "Contra Corrente" ("Undertow") -
Chris Knipp7 November 2004A teenage boy smashes his would be girlfriend's window and gets chased by the cops. He leaps out of a barn and lands on a plank driving a long nail through his foot but surprises us by keeping on running, howling with pain, plank and all. When he's taken to jail he's patched up and released and given the plank back. When he gets home he carves it into a birthday present, a toy airplane for his little brother. This is how this movie begins.
"Undertow" takes place in an unnamed rural part of Georgia near water where at first we meet two boys, Chris and Tim Munn (Jamie Bell and the young Devon Alan) who live on a small isolated pig farm with their moody father, John Munn (Dermot Mulroney), a widower who's buried himself in this far off place because he can't deal with his wife's passing. (The Munns, the opening titles tell us, were real people in Georgia and this is based on their lives.) Suddenly John's brother Deel Munn (Josh Lucas) unexpectedly appears, just out of jail and full of anger and envy. Even if the father was edgy with the boys, and Chris was obstreperous and Tim was odd, it was a solid little world, but Deel's presence leads to violence and flight. The action hinges on a set of gold coins that have an almost fairy-tale significance, and the Brothers Grimm were an influence on the story.
Yes indeed: the story. This new movie by much admired young American director David Gordon Green arouses disappointment in some of his fans who miss the quirky, stylized meanderings of his "George Washington" and "All the Real Girls," because "Undertow" moves squarely into the more conventional world of plot and action. Others who like myself admired almost everything about his earlier efforts but their lack of a strong narrative line are glad that this time there is one. But no doubt it comes at a price. There's a tug of war between the old Green and the new one going on.
The movie divides itself into the time leading up to the violence and the period of flight and pursuit that ends in climax and denouement. There are those who say "Undertow" is derived from Seventies thrillers or "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" or Terrence Malick, whose producer imprimatur the movie bears. These associations pop up because indeed the story is not brilliantly original, even if the texture and look are as distinctive as those of Green's earlier movies. Two thirds of the way through, "Undertow's" narrative arouses expectations of momentum and suspense that are temporarily disappointed, because in the course of flight and pursuit the movie starts to wander a bit. The idiosyncratic dialogue and fresh characters are what makes Green's work so interesting, but they do slow things down, particularly here. In the end neither the die-hard fans nor newcomers will be completely satisfied. It's his very independence that keeps him from completely pleasing anybody but himself.
Green has gone too conventional in some ways, such as cheesy opening titles and an initial series of attention-grabbing freeze-frames, which also continue to reappear sporadically throughout the picture at random moments. The former amateurishness has been replaced with some pointless over-slickness. The cinematography by Green regular Tim Orr is lovely though, with its rich locales and saturated color.
Green's earlier movies fell flat for me -- "George Washington" was singular and engaging but went nowhere, and "All the Real Girls" had more character development but suffered from bad casting and embarrassing dialogue. At its worst moments, which tended to stick in the mind, both movies seemed like Hallmark cards for rural retards.
But "Undertow" does not disappoint, despite its flaws. It retains the distinctive style. And this time because it's successfully plot-driven from very early on, the meanderings -- having a firm foundation in action and character -- come to seem engaging digressions rather than mere self-indulgence. The stuff about a chocolate cake at Tim's ruined birthday party, Chris's run with the plank stuck to his foot, even Tim's disgusting-seeming habit of eating mud and crud and paint and throwing up, wake you up and make you pay attention because of their particularity. It's true that Lucas and Mulroney are too much the Hollywood hunks, just as Zooey Deschanel in "Real Girls" was too much the Indie pinup queen: Green may still have some problems with casting. But not with Jamie Bell, who's about perfect. And he still stays true to the composite southern milieu he grew up in. The grandparents who appear in the denouement are priceless, like so many of the incidental characters.
Deel's arrival at the farm is electric in its effect. From then on the scene is nothing but tension. Mulroney and Lucas, if we discount the too-perfect hunkiness, make a good pair of brothers. Both are big, physical, attractive men whose faces aren't unalike. Mulroney has sullenness about him; Lucas is edgy and aggressive. It turns out John's late wife was Deel's girlfriend first, and John stole her away from him, so the fraternal conflict was truly primal. Their confrontation makes you realize how successfully violence conveys a sense of structure in any story.
After that, the boys run off pursued by Deel, carrying away the gold coins Deel thinks he should have gotten from his father instead of John. There are hints of "Huckleberry Finn" in the boys' adventures when they go wandering on the run from Deel, while the boys' meditative voiceovers suggest Malick. It's strange that the sickly little Tim is the one who runs carrying the bag that has both his books and the couple dozen gold coins in it. But despite such inconsistencies and the suggestion by critics and viewers that the narrative is hackneyed, the treatment and the mood are pure David Gordon Green.
With this third film his methods finally make sense. Rather than thinking of Seventies actioners and the movie "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter," you'd do better to refer to Carson McCullers, whose novel that film is based on, or to the stories of Truman Capote or Eudora Welty or William Faulkner, or -- closer to today -- the early novels of Cormac McCarthy; or to the photographs of Ralph Eugene Meatyard or Sally Mann. Like those artists, and unlike any Hollywood director, Green has a rich, particular, overripe, deeply southern vision. The fun is in the particularity -- in the cashier, for instance, who flirts with Deel and chokes on her gum; in her mechanic husband who rambles on about some obscure musical group called the Storics; in Tim's storytelling from his books and the way he is filing them at home according to their smell. "Despite a few narrative confusions," Jonathan Rosenbaum has written of "Undertow," "I found it pure magic." You could be cynical and say it would take magic to justify the confusions. But Rosenbaum isn't far wrong. For whatever faults it has, "Undertow" really sings. -
OJT15 September 2012Talented filmmaking from director of Pianapple Express, with a disturbing underlying nerve right from the start. The story evolves around two brothers growing up in a poor, rural farming environment in the southern part of Georgia. Troubles comes when the convicted brother of the father of the boys turned up unexpectedly, looking for some hidden gold coins.
It's a well told story, a southern tragedy, with great acting from the entire cast. The underlying terror of the past is haunting in this piece of good film making. The story is perfectly told, but if something's lacking here, it's the final pull of interest. But it's beautiful, sad and heart wrenching from a lesser fortunate part of USA.
Well worth a watch, if you don't expect a masterpiece, but a good film. -
SnoopyStyle15 September 2015Chris 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. -
Wuchakk5 September 2010Two boys living with their father (Dermot Mulroney) in rural Georgia near Savannah (where the film was shot) try to eke out a living off the land. Chris (Jamie Bell) is about 16 and Tim around 10; both manifest their grief over their dead mother and the challenges of their destitute isolation in different ways: Chris gets in trouble with the law while Tim strangely seems preoccupied with consuming non-edible items. Their father's brother (Josh Lucas) comes to visit and seems affable enough, but there's a wild, sinister glint in his eyes. No wonder, he's inwardly frothing with hostility and greed.
David Gordon Green's "Undertow" (2004) is a bit reminiscent of Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" (1978) in that both are realistic dramas focusing on youths in rural areas and both offer a dreamy viewing experience. Each tries hard to enchant with their movie magic. Unlike "Days," however, "Undertow" is rooted in Southern Gothic. Of the two, I favor "Undertow."
After viewing the director's awesome "Snow Angels" (2007), easily one of the greatest dramas ever filmed, I decided to give this one, his previous film, another chance. I'm glad I did because "Undertow" is the type of movie that improves on repeat viewings.
But these types of arty flicks aren't for everyone. Those bred on modern blockbusters will likely find "Undertow" dull, meandering and pointless. I myself wasn't all that impressed the first time I watched it. I didn't hate it; I just didn't "get" it. I'm glad I gave it a second (and third) chance, however, because "Undertow" succeeded in pulling me in under its spell. You just have to be in the right mode for a film of this ilk.
The "dreamy" quality noted above is facilitated by Philip Glass' mesmerizing score that plays during the opening and closing credits. It's simple and repetitive, but spellbinding. I've gone to the credits a few times just to enjoy this brilliant piece.
Being a Southern Gothic drama/thriller, "Undertow" has a cool Southern ambiance with focus on the rural underbelly. Other films that are successful in this regard come to mind: "The General's Daughter," "Ode to Billy Joe," "I Walk the Line" (with Gregory Peck, 1970), "Mississippi Burning," "Squirm," "The Man in the Moon" and "The Skeleton Key." If you have a taste for these types of films, including the aforementioned "Days of Heaven," you'll likely appreciate "Undertow." The difference with "Undertow" is that it concentrates so exclusively on pastoral paucity that it cops a poetic post-apocalyptic ambiance.
The film runs 1 hour, 48 minutes. Kristen Stewart has a small role in the first act.
GRADE: B/B- -
come2whereimfrom2 October 2005After a captivating start undertow flows along unable to decide if it's a black comedy or a road movie thriller. I don't think it has enough menace to be scary or tense and the humour is so subtle it's not black it's grey. Opening with the main character Chris played by Jamie bell, getting in trouble with the law again proves straight away that we are not in Billy Elliot territory. We meet his dad and younger brother when they bail him out again. These three boys have been going it alone since the death of their wife/mother, running the farm, fixing the house, just surviving. Then with the arrival of Chris's uncle the film turns from little house on the prairie to cape fear as tension in the house mounts. It is at this point we as the audience sense something is not right, an old unsettled score and some missing family money starts to spell out revenge. So when Chris's uncle kills his brother the boys decide to go on the run, unsure of what exactly to do. This then is the story, two boys on the run from murdering uncle, big brother looks out for little brother etc. see the thing is the film never really get anywhere and in that respect your with the boys 'where are we going?' 'How will this end?' we ebb towards the last few minutes of the film and still we are unaware of the outcome of this backwater tale. Then it all happens in the last few minutes so much so it almost feel rushed. And that's it. We're done an hour and forty minutes of beautiful swamps and hillbilly mechanics and after all the running and fleeing and near misses we get it all sorted in the end. It strange that the director chose to end the film this way as it has some of the most beautifully crafted pieces of humour I've ever seen, also the camera work and freeze-frames that puncture the film like oil paintings are exquisite and without giving anything away there's the nail. Look out for the nail! When all is said and done this film to me just can't decide what it is and that really spoils it because if it had have gone either way I think each would have been a great film in there own right.
-
thatoneguychris2 March 2005I recently saw this film after seeing Green's George Washington. While that film was interesting it wasn't fantastic...Undertow is fantastic and more. The plot is simple enough, just a story about two boys and their father living in the backwoods of America when their world is interrupted. The boys' uncle comes to visit, recently out of prison, and life quickly changes for them all and the true beauty of this film comes out. Where many movies fail is in focusing too heavily on the main characters or the action of the story. Undertow makes no such mistakes. In between the more intense scenes we are introduced to the world around our heroes. We meet fully developed characters each of whom could easily fill a movie of their own. Rather than creating a world for us to watch, Green has instead allowed us into a living, breathing world as observers. We don't get explanations for everything, only what we see on the screen. Miraculously, none of these characters slow down the film. They add humor or romance or suspense before we are snapped back to the main story. On top of all that the film is beautifully shot, perfectly acted/cast and the music fits the moods in each scene. There is finally a movie that can thrill us, but still take time to make sure we care and believe in it's world. I cannot recommend it enough, you will not be disappointed.
I'm not sure what world Green will next allow us to enter, but I can't wait. -
MBunge28 April 2010This movie would not end. It just kept going on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. I began to wish that my house would catch fire so I would have an excuse to stop watching it.
This interminable tale starts out with John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) and his two sons. Chris (Jaime Bell) is a teenage delinquent with a crush on a neighbor girl. Tim (Devon Alan) is the brainy kid brother with a 1970s era Bee Gees haircut who makes himself sick by eating any appalling garbage he can get his hands on. They live out in the sticks and don't interact much with the rest of the world. Then John's brother Deel (Josh Lucas) shows up. Deel has gotten out of prison and is looking for work. John asks him to stay and help look after his boys. Deel agrees, but the reason he's really there is to find the old coins their father had. He finds the coins, things go terribly wrong and the rest of the movie involves Chris, Tim and Deel wandering aimlessly and pointlessly through the countryside in one of the most boring stretches of film I've ever seen or even imagined.
There are so many scenes in Undertow that are so dumb and so purposeless they could only exist to stretch this story out to legitimate movie-length. We get to watch John Munn eat cake! We get to see him smoke a pipe! We get to listen to Tim prattle on about chiggers! We observe Chris and Tim performing chores for a black couple! And we also get to experience the slowest speed chase in the history of anyone chasing anybody! I am not exaggerating when I say that 90% of the second half of this film is useless crud. It serves no function within the story and it has no greater thematic or emotional significance for the audience.
Compounding the awesome lack of meaning and direction in this story is that these characters talk about their emotions like they're guests on the Dr. Phil show. These people are portrayed as unsophisticated country folk, yet they speak as though they've been in therapy since they were born. There is nothing in this story that is left under the surface. Every last, little, possible nuance or subtlety is just splayed out in front of the audience, as though the filmmakers were worried that this film might be a bit too smart for people. It ain't.
Josh Lucas is the only actor who manages to give an even halfway decent performance, and he's stuck with a character who stops making sense halfway through the film. Mulroney and his two young co-stars are just stiffs. Though to be fair, it's not like the story is asking them for more and they fail to deliver. The characters are just blocks of wood, so I suppose their uninspired work may have been a case of good acting in crappy roles.
Finally, there's a lot of inexplicably arty direction going on here. Something will happen and that image will be repeated again and again. The film will flash to negative for a second or the image will freeze while we still hear people talking. Slow motion is used, not for some important moment in the story, but for a homeless chick walking. That's all she was doing. Walking. And they put her in slow-mo! None of these fancy tricks mean anything to the story or to how the audience is supposed to perceive it. I think the director simply thought they looked really cool. He was wrong.
Undertow starts out like it's a "family coming together" movie, runs into a big moment of melodrama and then mutates into this ponderous, tiring, idiotic drool. I can understand why someone may have thought the first half of this film was worth making. I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what went wrong with the second half. -
Flagrant-Baronessa26 July 2006Director David Gordon Green's critically acclaimed Undertow is a strange but gripping experience. I don't know any other film quite like this. We've seen the slow pacing build up tension in the plot before in films, but it's so much more than that in Undertow it's the pace of a family's life in the deep backwoods of Georgia and it it patiently lets us absorb everything. Maybe I was in a sensitive and impressionable frame of mind when I saw it, because I remember being so shaken and touched by this fare that its visuals and mood still haunt me.
But this patient, slow pace is the calm before the storm as it comes to an end when the brother of the father of the family comes to visit, newly released from prison. Josh Lucas is this brother, and he captures the shady nature of his character with effortless conviction. His presence is felt in scenes he is not even in. Upon arriving to the family, the film just takes a completely different turn and we follow the two brave kids in the family on the run in the south from their uncle.
This is further emphasized by attention-grabbing frames that freeze whenever intensity builds up. This may seem anti-climactic, but it's extremely effective and it makes the chase sequences very exciting and 1970s-influenced. So it essentially shifts between chase mode and (eerily) quiet South-paced calm in a genius way. If you like your films fast-paced and action-filled however, its brilliance may be lost on you but if you give it time, Undertow will surprise you as it's unpredictable, even in style. This is just how meticulously-crafted it is.
The film is grimy, dense, brooding and realistic and it zooms in on the deep necks of Georgia, featuring some gorgeously striking visuals, making you feel the dirt and heat of the deep south as if you were right there, breathing the murky warm air from the brown rivers. Some say Green's directing style is reminiscent of Terrence Malick (it is very visually-driven) but I don't think so rather it is an insult to the former; Green clearly knows what he's doing and lets nature visuals facilitate the story he tells, while Malick lets the story facilitate his pointless nature visuals.
I loved Undertow more every minute it progressed and am now prepared to give this film a 9 out 10. I also have it firmly stapled in my top 10 films of all time list and that is quite a feat for such a low-key dark horse.
9/10 -
The_late_Buddy_Ryan12 January 2015According to IMDb, it was Terence Malick who brought this script to the attention of his chief disciple, David Gordon Green. It seems like what DGG originally had in mind was a lyrical, "Tree of Life"–type story focusing on Tim, the younger of two brothers who live with their widowed father in a farmhouse in rural Georgia. At some point he decided to switch over to a more bankable plot line, reminiscent of "Night of the Hunter," involving a hoard of gold coins that's hidden in the house and a covetous ex-con uncle.
Thus, we get a few slices of Tim's story—he's a dreamy ten-year-old who suffers from pica (an eating disorder that makes him crave paint and dirt and such) and arranges his old paperbacks "by the way they smell"—intercut with faster-moving scenes of conflict and pursuit. Perversely, after all hell breaks loose (no spoilers here!) and the brothers run off with the gold, Green starts channeling in Malick at his most leisurely and reflective, and we get a lingering shot of a slow-moving woodland stream under Tim's improv'd monologue about chiggers and their habits
The "Night of the Hunter" storyline stalls repeatedly so Green can splice in little comic vignettes of rural life—the uncle's encounters with a talky towtruck driver and a goofy cashier who swallows her gum, the wedding of a local boy and an Asian picture bride—that he'd clearly have loved to expand on. The final scenes play out in familiar DGG locales—a giant auto graveyard and a homeless encampment—but the film had totally lost momentum by then, and I couldn't get too interested in decoding their occult significance. (Earlier references to Charon and Christ's stigmata remind us that the original treatment was written by a prep-school English teacher.)
No doubt that DGG's a brilliant filmmaker, but this seems to be one of those overstuffed auteurist efforts like "The Master" that have to be watched repeatedly on disk (including deleted scenes) before you can get much out of them. (Too bad that he didn't get a shot at "A Confederacy of Dunces," btw.) -
lonicelee7 April 2007***** Spoiler Alert ***** One of the worst movies I've ever seen. The opening sequence was good (which is why it deserved 1 point instead of 0) but it ran out of steam after about 20 minutes. After another 40 minutes, I just wanted it to end. It was clear the uncle wanted the gold coins but no one picked up on that. Then the boys stood around and listened while they argued. Only after the father was killed did they do anything. Then after the uncle tried to kill them with the shovel, they knocked him down and ran upstairs. They ran repeatedly instead of taking advantage of a dazed or injured uncle. The entire movie was a series of ludicrous setups. It was amazing that a boy who mainly ate paint and dirt (and was too fragile to work around the house) was able to run for miles and do manual labor. And despite a fall from a second story window and multiple attacks, the uncle had only a slight limp and a small cut on his forehead. It just wasn't believable and after so many stupid choices, I didn't care if the entire family died. They never explained why he ate paint. They clearly didn't care about the coins so why keep running with them? How did that nasty girl not see the huge bulge from the coins in his front pocket? How did the older brother stab the uncle? Where did he go when he went underwater? Everyone was a dumb as a box of rocks except for the uncle with nine lives.
-
Antagonisten28 November 2004I watched Undertow at the Stockholm International Film Festival in November 2004. I had previously heard nothing about the film and it was more or less a coincidence that made med watch it. It was a pleasant experience though.
Undertow is about two brothers living with their father in rural America. They live inside the woods since their father wants to keep away from other people. The oldest son, Chris, is a troubled kid almost always in trouble with the law. The youngest son has health problems. One day the fathers brother comes to visit, recently out of prison. He stays for a while before starting a new job. Soon though, there is trouble. Things happen and before long the two brothers are running from their uncle.
The story here is perhaps nothing you haven't seen before at one time or another. But it's well executed and the strange, almost surreal, mood of the film is well maintained throughout. What stands out though in my opinion is the acting. All the main characters are acted very well. Especially Jamie Bell is excellent as the oldest brother. Also Josh Lucas does a terrific job playing the boys' unpleasant uncle.
I wouldn't call this a masterpiece but it's well worth the watch. If for nothing else, then at least for the acting. It was one of the better films i saw at this years film festival, and i feel it's worth recommending. I rate it 6/10. -
Scarecrow-8810 December 2006The lives of Chris and Tim(Jamie Bell and Devon Alan)are overwhelmed at the arrival of their widower father's brother. They soon find out why he is there..it's to collect half these coins his father once stole as father John(Dermot Mulroney)has them hidden somewhere. Murder will result as the boys(carrying the gold in a knapsack)run for their lives through murky, poverty-stricken Georgia with their pursuer, Deel(Josh Lucas)always nipping at their heels.
Another aspect fueling Deel's rage was John's taking away his love. That is seen as betrayal, but with John also lying to Deel about the coins being gone doesn't help.
The film is basically a chase, but feel very reminiscent of "Night of the Hunter" because the framework is essentially the same. We watch a psycho really determined to get what he believes is his right to own..those coins are meant to be lining his pockets. He isn't afraid at killing the boys, proof after Deel murders their father and attempts killing them with a shovel. We know that if Deel catches them, it's certain doom. Also, the journey itself, despite the garbage-poor look of the boys travels, is almost idyllic as it adds a realism and unusual feel. We feel like these places they travel, and people they meet, are honest-to-goodness real and intricately drawn out. The film is conventional, but at the same time David Gordon Green is able to meander by having his boys meet certain individuals on their journey who mold them and shape them along the way. Also, Lucas isn't afraid to make his Deel extreme and on-the-edge scary that he's willing to do whatever it takes to get what is coming to him..what he waited in prison for. -
=G=28 April 2005"Undertow" is a drama about a feud between a hardworking father with two sons and his brother which boils over and sends the boys on the run. This well staged and directed film languishes between the few dramatic moments which constitute its meager story and squanders its time on the mundane melancholy of the hardworking bereaved backwoods Georgia family. The downside of "Undertow" is a story which is so ordinary, as films go, it could have been clipped from any daily newspaper. The upside is its ability to delve deep into the character's psyches, evince emotion, and conjure a strong sense of empathy. With good critical reviews and good marks from the public, this down home drama should play well as a DVD watch for those who appreciate the telling more than the story. (B)
-
MrGKB14 October 2008...that, if nothing else, confirms that auteur David Gordon Green is a director to watch. "Undertow" is a somewhat picaresque tale, of a stripe labeled Southern Gothic these days, that concerns itself with the lives of two generations of brothers, one the parent to the other. The Terrence Malick (one of the film's producers) influence is apparent, along with that of Mark Twain, Miguel de Cervantes and the like. The story is a simple one of Good betrayed and pursued by Evil, with a resolution that may leave some viewers cold, if not befuddled, but as is the case in so many similar tales, it's the journey itself and the lessons learned (or not) along the way that is the meat of things, and Green serves up a mostly satisfying meal. The acting is quite good, especially from the young leads. Jamie "Jumper" Bell is superb, proving himself once again as an immensely talented young actor with a long and successful career ahead of him, while relative newcomer Devon Alan shows good chops as Bell's younger brother. Dermot "Living in Oblivion" Mulroney and Josh "Poseidon" Lucas, as the boys' fathers, ably demonstrate their abilities with excellent performances of characters notably against type. The supporting ensemble features a number of recognizable faces, including a very brief appearance by Bill "Deliverance" McKinney ("Squeal like a pig!"), although unfortunately Kristen "Panic Room" Stewart and Shiri "Swimfan" Appleby don't get near enough screen time. Longtime Green collaborator Tim "Sex Drive" Orr handles the camera chores with great finesse and an eye for the corroded beauty of downhome Alabama. The score by Philip "Koyaanisqatsi" Glass is appropriately pastoral and foreboding as required, not his strongest work but quite serviceable. Likewise, the editing by Green collaborators Steven Gonzales and Zene Baker is good, though in my estimation marred by seemingly random freezes and fades that practically scream, "Cut to commercial!" Still, whatever minor quibbles I have, "Undertow" is a worthy rental, if not purchase, and a commendable alternative to typical Hollywood fare.
-
jdring200526 March 2006If you are looking for an action, thriller, or suspense movie--skip by this. If you are looking for a great story/plotted movie with emotion and thematic elements, pick this up. Either way, be prepared for a slow and very boring movie. I believe this should have definitely been rated PG-13, because the single violent scene shouldn't deserve enough to be an R-rating. Nonetheless, it is a good film with excellent acting, well-played dramatical intensity, and an overall good film. Not recommended for action or thriller fans, though. I can say, anyhow, that the movie moved me a bit and kept me wanting to see the end; if you pick this up and start watching it, you better finish it. However, one thing that did disappoint me was the abrupt ending; cannot say how it ends {no spoilers}, but when/if you do watch it (-all the way through-) then you should know what I mean. Yet if you are one of those people who pick up a movie and will stop it after like thirty minutes of being pretty bored, then don't get or else you better finish it--because in the end it was worth it. Recommended, of course, for rent. 7/10, 3/5
-
driver_812 November 2004This is one of the more unique films you are ever going to see. It takes place in a nightmarish world that resembles backwoods Georgia, circa 1973. The story centers around a father and his two sons, who live in what could best be described as a dump. The father is demanding, the older son a rebel and the younger son...just plain weird. Well, something evil this way comes and the two sons escape into the backwoods in search of safety. While the boys are on this journey, they meet interesting characters that help them in some way. It really does play like a white trash fairy tale. I applaud the effort put forward by this director. He wanted to make an escapist movie that resembles some classic midnight movie from the 1970s, and he does. The performances and dialog are excellent. I recommend this film for anybody seeking something different and something entertaining.
-
First let me say that Terrence Malick is as near to a living God that I have. He has given more to the cinema in three films than all but a handful of filmmakers did in entire careers of tens of titles. David Gordon Green has shown a tendency towards Malick's style of cinema, and has been quoted as saying how he admires the three masterpieces. Now, he has Malick as producer. Surely, 'Undertow' will be a loving 'homage', which, to an extent, it is, but I just feel that having his mentor looking over his shoulder hasn't been a salutary experience, and that 'Undertow' featuring Malick's trademark 'innocent narrator, and shot in what sometimes look like rejected sets from 'Badlands' (all genuflect), might have been better for breaking free.
-
Targe20 October 2010It's rare when I can actually say I want my lost time back from this garbage. This film was so bad it's hard to find a place to start.
We are 'treated' to a loser father who has dragged his weird boys into the countryside to raise pigs and live in their filth. One boy appears perfectly normal, yet the movie portrays him as a criminal. He breaks a window pane to get his g/f's attention and they send TWO squad cars after him, fishtailing up the gravel roads in true Dukes of Hazzard style. Pathetic, and AS IF. This was after the kid got a nail in a board stuck to his foot and then jumped in a river. Leave your believability at the door.
His younger brother is worse, much worse. He goes around eating pig crap and paint and dirt and whatever he can stuff in his weird little mouth. By the middle of the movie we were laughing insults at 'Paint boy' and asking him to please shut up his voice-overs, which are endless, INANE, pointless! stupid, and completely ANNOYING, and go eat some nuclear waste and DIE for goddsake!
Then we have the mysterious case of the loser father allowing his jail bird brother to stay with them, after apparently the murdering psycho KILLED THE DAD'S WIFE??!!?? This is never fully explained in the movie but heavily implied.
Then he's surprised when the guy tries to steal his father's inherited coins, and instead of grabbing a shotgun, calmly just asks the guy to put them back... the idiocy and lack of believability in this movie is stunning.
So obviously, which we saw 1/2 an hour ago and from 50,000 feet, he kills the dad. The stupid kids, instead of running IMMEDIATELY into the woods TO THE NEAREST POLICE STATION, try HIDING IN THEIR ROOM!!! OMG! This is worse than a grade-B slasher movie!!! Then when they do get away, ignoring dad's station wagon btw and choosing to run on foot, the killer psycho tracks them like some sort of demonic bloodhound, mysteriously always finding them again.
In the final scene, instead of running away, the older kid mysteriously decides to commit suicide by challenging the fully grown man WHO IS ARMED WITH A KNIFE to a wrestling match in a nearby slough. Predictably the kid is quickly drowned, but somehow, mysteriously, manages to plunge the guy's knife into the guy while under water, and oh yeah, BEING DROWNED.
Thank god they cut out the part where annoying PAINT BOY comes back and calmly sits down beside the psycho who just drowned his brother, and oh, talks about crap and annoying bs while the guy dies.
What a complete TRAIN WRECK of a movie, thank the GODS I borrowed this off my girlfriend's sister and did not have to pay a DIME to watch it. I STILL feel ripped off from my WASTED TIME though. -
UNDERTOW is a perplexing film, one that seems like it could be a superb atmospheric contemplation of poverty and its consequences in the back roads of the South, but ends in a prolonged ennui that suggests that a growing director doesn't know when excess has been met and indulged.
John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) lives with his two sons Chris (Jamie Bell) and Tim (Devon Alan) in mud and squalor in rural Georgia, a place of escape from inquisitive society after the death of his wife. Chris is lonely and curious and is repeatedly arrested for minor crimes while Tim is psychically injured and lives in an unhealthy mental state eating paint, mud, and anything that will make him vomit. John Munn tries valiantly to cope with being a single father of these two problematic boys but clearly needs help.
Into this setting arrives Deel, John's ne're-do-well brother with whom he had a rocky childhood who has been recently released form prison for a crime that apparently tangentially involved John. John takes Deel in to provide shelter in exchange for helping him with his pig farm and with his boys, but we soon discover that Deel's true motivation for visiting his long-lost brother is to gain access to gold coins given to John and Deel by their father (references to the use of gold coins to pay Charon for passage over the river Styx into Hades and the subsequent curse on these coins is explained by John to his boys).
The crisis of the movie is the conflict and ultimately deadly encounter between Deel and John and when the boys observe the loss of their father, they gather the coins and a backpack and begin their flight to safety. The remainder of the movie is how these two brothers learn to grow up and fend for themselves in the most difficult of circumstances and always under the threat of Deel's discovering their whereabouts. Along the way we meet some interesting if repetitively impoverished folk, each adding a bit of philosophy, both said and unsaid, to the boys' growth. The ending is Grand Guignol and to reveal it further would be a disservice to the surprise it holds.
David Gordon Green is a 30-year-old director who has a penchant for tales of the impoverished South. He understands mood and atmosphere, makes use of freeze frame camera angles poignantly and is able to draw unfettered realistic performances from his actors (both main characters and bit players). He wisely elected to enlist the fine cinematography of Tim Orr, the quasi-appropriate musical score by Phillip Glass, and tries to work with a shaky dialogue by screenwriter Joe Conway based on a story by Lingard Jervey. At this point in his career (and yes, he is the assigned director for the upcoming 'The Secret Life of Bees') he is a creative artist who needs to watch his own completed films carefully to see where he loses control of the story and allows it to disappear in the mists of bland blathering. There is so much good in his work that surely the services of a brave, outspoken editor will repair his indulgences.
The four main actors are all excellent: Mulroney and Lucas have an unkempt, of-the-dirt sensuality that keeps them constantly engaging and each develops a fully realized character from the material they are given. Jamie Bell proves that he can take on tough roles and make them appear naturally simple and Devon Alan is a sensitive purveyor of a damaged boy.
If there were just some way to condense this two-hour film down to tolerable proportions, this would be a truly fine film. Be patient with it and you will be observing the work of a director who will probably become an important voice. Grady Harp -
Jonny_Numb27 August 2005Out of most of the up-and-coming young actors in Hollywood today, Josh Lucas is certainly a standout talent, known less for starring roles and more for his supporting work in little-seen art-house fare such as "American Psycho" and "Session 9." In "Undertow," a coming-of-age fable blended with sibling rivalry and murder, we are reminded of his ability to strike a commanding, imposing figure who oozes as much debonair menace as Robert Mitchum did in "Night of the Hunter." Unfortunately, this comparison reveals "Undertow"'s weakness: in spite of being an all-around good production, with fine direction and convincing performances, it has far too much in common with that classic film for it to be considered anything more than an homage...or a belated, unofficial sequel. Deel (Lucas) is released from prison and pays a visit to his brother, John (Dermot Mulroney), who has been taking care of his two children since his wife died; this reunion inspires conflict that culminates in a shocking crime that puts the children on the run with a sack of valuable coins Deel desperately wants. Sound familiar? "Undertow"'s strengths outweigh its weaknesses, but the deja-vu plot and situations keeps it from achieving greatness.
-
It's hard to describe how painful it was to watch this movie. It was horrible. There was no plot, no theme, and I couldn't have cared less if all of the characters died. A film doesn't have to follow a formula to be good, but this was random. It started nowhere and went nowhere. It was worse than "Eyes Wide Shut." If you want to watch a movie about nothing, see this one. I know some films like to leave it to the audience to figure out the meaning of the things depicted. I got the thing about the coins, but who really cares. By then I was exhausted from waiting for something to happen. A good example of the randomness of the movie is the stuff about the kid eating paint and dirt. What did it have to do with the movie? What did it have to do with anything? It came from nowhere and went nowhere. The film just went on and on and on. I kept waiting for something to happen, but it never did. It was a complete waste of time to watch. When the movie ended, the only word uttered by my 27 year old daughter (a real film buff) was "painful." I couldn't agree more. I find it hard to believe that this film grossed $124,000. People should have been paid to watch it.