Undertow

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Undertow

R

Released Oct 22, 2004

1h 47m

Mystery & Thriller

Drama

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Popcornmeter

56%

Tomatometer

117 Reviews

61%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

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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Scott Foundas

Variety

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

Mar 26, 2009

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Ben Walters

Time Out

Green's signature pastoral tangents and codeine pacing don't slow down this tale of two boys fleeing their psychotic uncle so much as inappropriately slacken any of the story's suspenseful aspects.

Aug 16, 2007

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Empire Magazine

A poetic, atmospheric drama that's worth seeing despite Green's struggle to blend character drama with more conventional thrills.

Rated: 3/5

Jun 25, 2005

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David Walsh

World Socialist Web Site

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

Feb 15, 2021

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Andrew F

my personal pick for best film of all time. introduced me to the wonder and quality of independent cinema.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

07/27/18

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ashley h

Undertow is a boring film. It is about a volatile teen who lives with his father and his little brother. Jamie Bell and Dermot Mulroney give horrible performances. The screenplay is a little in places. David Gordon Green did a terrible job directing this movie. I was not impressed with this motion picture.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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David Gordon Green

Director

Jamie Bell

Chris Munn

Josh Lucas

Deel Munn

Devon Alan

Tim Munn

Dermot Mulroney

John Munn

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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
Producer: Lisa Muskat, Terrence Malick, Edward R. Pressman
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
Runtime: 1h 47m
Sound Mix: Surround, Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)

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