After a captivating start undertow flows along unable to decide if it's a black comedy or a road movie thriller. I don't think it has enough menace to be scary or tense and the humour is so subtle it's not black it's grey. Opening with the main character Chris played by Jamie bell, getting in trouble with the law again proves straight away that we are not in Billy Elliot territory. We meet his dad and younger brother when they bail him out again. These three boys have been going it alone since the death of their wife/mother, running the farm, fixing the house, just surviving. Then with the arrival of Chris's uncle the film turns from little house on the prairie to cape fear as tension in the house mounts. It is at this point we as the audience sense something is not right, an old unsettled score and some missing family money starts to spell out revenge. So when Chris's uncle kills his brother the boys decide to go on the run, unsure of what exactly to do. This then is the story, two boys on the run from murdering uncle, big brother looks out for little brother etc. see the thing is the film never really get anywhere and in that respect your with the boys 'where are we going?' 'How will this end?' we ebb towards the last few minutes of the film and still we are unaware of the outcome of this backwater tale. Then it all happens in the last few minutes so much so it almost feel rushed. And that's it. We're done an hour and forty minutes of beautiful swamps and hillbilly mechanics and after all the running and fleeing and near misses we get it all sorted in the end. It strange that the director chose to end the film this way as it has some of the most beautifully crafted pieces of humour I've ever seen, also the camera work and freeze-frames that puncture the film like oil paintings are exquisite and without giving anything away there's the nail. Look out for the nail! When all is said and done this film to me just can't decide what it is and that really spoils it because if it had have gone either way I think each would have been a great film in there own right.
Review of Undertow
