Undertow

R

Released Oct 22, 2004

1 hr. 47 min.

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

List

54%

120 Reviews

Tomatometer

61%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

After his wife dies, John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) moves with his sons Chris (Jamie Bell) and Tim (Devon Alan) to rural Georgia to raise pigs. Rebelling against his father, Chris initially welcomes the arrival of Uncle Deel (Josh Lucas), just out of jail. Still angry that John married the woman he loved, Deel tries to steal a stash of gold coins, and kills his brother in the struggle. Grabbing the treasure, Chris flees with Tim, and the boys try to elude the murderous Deel.

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Critics Consensus

Undertow's gently fantastical elements are balanced by fully realized characters and a story with genuine, steadily accumulating emotional weight.

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Audience Member

Overall pretty boring. Disappointing for a director who typically does better

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/27/23

Full Review

dave j

No plot but more of a situation starring Jamie Bell as Chris with the opening has him smashing a window just to get a girl he likes to notice him. He is then gets himself chased with a shot gun by the girls father, with the police eventually capturing and then questioning him before he is released to his father, John (Dermot Mulrony). Things turn for the worst when he gets a visit from his brother, Deel (Josh Lucas) coming back from serving. Viewers are oblivious about his crime was. The next thing you know both Chris and his little brother Tim (Devon Alan) go on the run .

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

kevin c

Whenever Josh Lucas plays a bad guy character you believe it, he's that good and convincing in these roles. This is no different as his character shows up at his brothers farm looking to retrieve gold coins their father gave to them. Things go awry and a pursuit finds Lucas's character chasing down his young nephews for his perceived property. Really good movie with fantastic performances throughout. Well worth watching.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

This movie is a blatant ripoff of the the classic "Night of the Hunter", but unfortunately it pretty much sucks. It's boring from start to finish. The first 30 minutes are absolute garbage. It does get a little watchable after the first 30 minutes, but it never stops being boring. The director does all of these unnecessary camera freezes and different negatives of the film.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/26/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Seriously, one of THE WORST, ridiculous and confusing movies I have ever seen! Just awful. I will never get that time back. Ugh. 🤢🤢🤢

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

01/19/23

Full Review

Audience Member

David Gordon Green's Undertow walks a fine line between dark, moody thriller and ridiculous backwoods heehaw stereotyping pretty well. The film has a dreamlike quality and intriguing pacing at the beginning, but the whole thing starts to unravel 2/3 of the way through. I did really love the timelessness of it - you couldn't really tell when it was set. It could easily have been the late 70s to present day and feel authentic. Other than the teeth - the teeth looked far too good - it was actually distracting. Standout for me was Jamie Bell. He is really fantastic and nails the accent. I guess I really wanted to understand why the characters were doing what they were doing and never really got a meaningful answer. And the ending? Maybe ambiguous? Or maybe just not good. The first half of the movie is really worth watching the rest for.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

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David Gordon Green

Director

Jamie Bell

Chris Munn

Josh Lucas

Deel Munn

Devon Alan

Tim Munn

Dermot Mulroney

John Munn

Shiri Appleby

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Nell Minow

Movie Mom

Rated: C+

Feb 18, 2012

Full Review

David Wiegand

San Francisco Chronicle

Rated: 4/4

Sep 17, 2010

Full Review

Scott Foundas

Variety

A deep-fried piece of Southern Gothic that wears its unpleasantness like a merit badge...

Mar 26, 2009

Full Review

David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

The characters are too arbitrarily drawn, they verge on the merely eccentric.

Feb 15, 2021

Full Review

Paul Dale

The List

This white trash fairytale is no masterpiece, but its sinister otherworldliness deserves to be applauded.

Rated: 4/5

Apr 24, 2019

Full Review

James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

its marriage of conventional thriller dynamics and unexpected visual potency marks it as something both utterly unique and reliably familiar

Rated: 3.5/4

Mar 29, 2016

Full Review

Read all reviews

Synopsis

After his wife dies, John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) moves with his sons Chris (Jamie Bell) and Tim (Devon Alan) to rural Georgia to raise pigs. Rebelling against his father, Chris initially welcomes the arrival of Uncle Deel (Josh Lucas), just out of jail. Still angry that John married the woman he loved, Deel tries to steal a stash of gold coins, and kills his brother in the struggle. Grabbing the treasure, Chris flees with Tim, and the boys try to elude the murderous Deel.

Director: David Gordon Green
Executive Producer: Alessandro Camon, John Schmidt
Screenwriter: Joe Conway, David Gordon Green
Distributor: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Production Co: United Artists, Sunflower Productions LLC, Continental Films
Rating: R (Violence)
Genre: Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 22, 2004, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 16, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA): $124.2K
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

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