UNDERTOW
US 2004, 108 minutes, Colour.
Jamie Bell, Josh Lucas, Dermot Mulroney, Devon Allen, Kristen Stewart.
Directed by David Gordon Green.
Critics could not have been more enthusiastic about David Gordon Green’s debut movie, George Washington. They liked his second film, All the Real Girls. For his third, Green has chosen a southern Gothic thriller, a genre piece that he was personally interested in, and the critics can’t forgive him for doing something he liked and they they he ought not do. And he made these films when he was only in his 20s. Better to appreciate the film for what it offers rather than what others think it ought to be.
On a poor farm, a widowed father, John (Dermot Mulroney) brings up his two sons, Chris (Jamie Bell), Tim (Devon Alan) in isolation with continuous hard work. Chris is a restless teenager with his eye on the daughter of a neighbour who keeps chasing him away and reporting him to the police. Tim is delicate and can’t work. The first part of the film quietly and slowly develops the characters and the situation.
When John’s brother, Deel (Josh Lucas doing yet another nasty type) turns up things take a turn for the worse and for violence with the boys finally on the run to escape their uncle. They are helped by a black couple and by drifters on the waterfront until the expected confrontation.
For those expecting action and pace, Undertow is not that kind of film. Rather, if we enter into the mood, we are drawn irresistibly into the current and moved along by the film’s thematic undertow. The point of view is mainly that of the two boys, the older a good boy who wants to do the best by this brother, the younger trying to cope with being on the run.
Jamie Bell has made a few films since Billy Elliot (and, although taller and older, has not changed all that much in appearance) but this is a vehicle that he has to carry. Audiences will warm to him and be on his side. The adults are good as is Devon Alan as Tim.
Undertow is a modestly ambitious drama that takes us into the strange and sometimes violent atmosphere of the American south.
Green has gone on to make a number of serious films but also ventured into parody with Pineapple Express and Your Highness.
1. the title? Tides? The framing black-and-white images in the water? The message in a bottle, the coins in the river?
2. The American south, atmosphere, Georgia, the homes, farms, the town, fields and woods, the landscapes, the waterscapes, the variety of locations, the waterfront? The musical score? The portrait of the family, John, his age and appearance, widower, the portrait of the family on the wall, their hard life, Chris, his age, flirting with the neighbour, throwing the stone at the window, the nail in his foot, caught by the police? Tim, his age and illness? The hard work, with the hogs, life on the isolated farm, relationships?
3. Chris, his hard life, the bond with the family, with the local girl, always in trouble, Tim’s birthday, making the plane for him?
4. Tim, age, frail, anxiety, meagre eating, being sick, the gift of the plane, his love of books?
5. Deel and his arrival, the impact? John’s brother, talking with him, memories of the past, the strict father? His time in prison, parole, ambitions, interest in the coins? His staying, working, the drive with Chris?
6. John and the story of the coins, the dead, paying for the ferry, otherwise waiting?
7. The clash with John, the coins, John saying they had been taken, Deel’s envy of the boots, resentment about Audrey, Chris being his son? The search for the coins, the fight, John’s death?
8. Chris looking through the window, the escape with Tim, Deel battering down the door, the pursuit?
9. The boys on the run, eluding Deel, bonding together, hiding in the woods, food, the couple and the talk and work, the jokes, the food? The wife contacting Deel? Going to the waterfront, unable to be employed? Tim sick, the medication? The fight in the alley, Chris saving the girls, the going to the river, bonding, talk, the message in the bottle, the issue of the coins, the audience thinking the girl had taken them? Not?
10. In the car dump, the boys together, Deal discovering them, hiding in the woods, running to the river?
11. The final confrontation, Chris in the river, pouring the coins into the water, Deel coming to drown him, Chris stabbing him, Deal’s death, Chris recovered?
12. Final hopes, Chris saved, Tim present, the kindly grandfather and grandmother?
