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
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