Undertow

11/22/2019

***Haunting and surreal Southern Gothic is nigh post-apocalyptic*** Two boys living with their father (Dermot Mulroney) in rural Georgia near Savannah (where the film was shot) try to eke out a living off the land. Chris (Jamie Bell) 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 preoccupied with consuming non-edible items. Their father's brother (Josh Lucas) comes to visit and seems affable enough, but there's a wild, sinister glint in his eyes. No wonder, he's inwardly frothing with hostility and greed. David Gordon Green's "Undertow" (2004) is a bit reminiscent of Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven" (1978) in that both are