Absolutely the worst movie.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

After viewing David Gordon Green's awesome "Snow Angels" (2007), easily one of the greatest dramas ever filmed, I decided I'd better give his previous film "Undertow" another chance. I'm glad I did because 2004's "Undertow" is the type of film that gets better with repeat viewings.The story revolves around two boys living with their father in rural Georgia near Savannah (where the film was shot), trying to eke out a living off the land. Chris 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 obsessed with consuming non-edible items. Their father's brother comes to visit and seems affable enough, but there's a wild, sinister glint in his eyes. No wonder since he's frothing with hostility and greed. Havoc ensues."Undertow" 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 try hard to enchant with their movie magic. Unlike "Days", however, "Undertow" is rooted in the Southern Gothic genre. Of the two, I favor "Undertow".It goes without saying that these types of arty films aren't for everyone. Those bred on modern "blockbusters" will likely find "Undertow" dull, meandering and pointless. And, I admit, I myself wasn't all that impressed the first time I watched it. I didn't hate it; I just didn't "get" it, if you know what I mean. I'm glad I gave it a second (and third) chance, however, because "Undertow" succeeded in pulling me in under its spell, so to speak. Maybe you just have to be in the right mode for a film of this ilk.The "dreamy" quality mentioned above is facilitated by Philip Glass's mesmerizing score. It's simple and repetitive, but greatly effective. Like the movie, it grows on you. In fact, I've gone to the closing credits a few times just to enjoy this brilliant composition.Being a Southern Gothic drama/thriller, "Undertow" has a cool Southern ambiance. Other films that are successful in this manner 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 (and "Days of Heaven") you'll likely appreciate "Undertow".Kristen Stewart has a small role in the first half hour.The film runs 108 minutes.FINAL WORD: It may not strike you on the first viewing but "Undertow" is a mesmerizing Southern Gothic drama/thriller; in some ways brilliant. I'm presently only giving it 8/10 because its point is elusive. What's it all mean? Regardless, "Undertow" is one of those films that gets better and better with each viewing, sort of like songs you didn't like at first but ultimately become all-time favorites. GRADE: B+

This 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.

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.

This film is about two young boys having to run for their lives after witnessing a dark family affair.Though this film could have been intense and thrilling, I found it really boring. Though one could say that the slow pacing was used to develop the characters, I think it undermined the film's rush as a thriller. I also found it unconvincing that Deel was able to find the two boys after they boarded the train. Fortunately, Dermot Mulroney is quite believable as a tough father. If it was not for Jamie Bell and Devon Alan's great portrayal of young boys on the run, the film would have been very disappointing. "Undertow" is unfortunately a forgettable film.