UNDERTOW is a perplexing film, one that seems like it could be a superb atmospheric contemplation of poverty and its consequences in the back roads of the South, but ends in a prolonged ennui that suggests that a growing director doesn't know when excess has been met and indulged.

John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) lives with his two sons Chris (Jamie Bell) and Tim (Devon Alan) in mud and squalor in rural Georgia, a place of escape from inquisitive society after the death of his wife. Chris is lonely and curious and is repeatedly arrested for minor crimes while Tim is psychically injured and lives in an unhealthy mental state eating paint, mud, and anything that will make him vomit. John Munn tries valiantly to cope with being a single father of these two problematic boys but clearly needs help.

Into this setting arrives Deel, John's ne're-do-well brother with whom he had a rocky childhood who has been recently released form prison for a crime that apparently tangentially involved John. John takes Deel in to provide shelter in exchange for helping him with his pig farm and with his boys, but we soon discover that Deel's true motivation for visiting his long-lost brother is to gain access to gold coins given to John and Deel by their father (references to the use of gold coins to pay Charon for passage over the river Styx into Hades and the subsequent curse on these coins is explained by John to his boys).

The crisis of the movie is the conflict and ultimately deadly encounter between Deel and John and when the boys observe the loss of their father, they gather the coins and a backpack and begin their flight to safety. The remainder of the movie is how these two brothers learn to grow up and fend for themselves in the most difficult of circumstances and always under the threat of Deel's discovering their whereabouts. Along the way we meet some interesting if repetitively impoverished folk, each adding a bit of philosophy, both said and unsaid, to the boys' growth. The ending is Grand Guignol and to reveal it further would be a disservice to the surprise it holds.

David Gordon Green is a 30-year-old director who has a penchant for tales of the impoverished South. He understands mood and atmosphere, makes use of freeze frame camera angles poignantly and is able to draw unfettered realistic performances from his actors (both main characters and bit players). He wisely elected to enlist the fine cinematography of Tim Orr, the quasi-appropriate musical score by Phillip Glass, and tries to work with a shaky dialogue by screenwriter Joe Conway based on a story by Lingard Jervey. At this point in his career (and yes, he is the assigned director for the upcoming 'The Secret Life of Bees') he is a creative artist who needs to watch his own completed films carefully to see where he loses control of the story and allows it to disappear in the mists of bland blathering. There is so much good in his work that surely the services of a brave, outspoken editor will repair his indulgences.

The four main actors are all excellent: Mulroney and Lucas have an unkempt, of-the-dirt sensuality that keeps them constantly engaging and each develops a fully realized character from the material they are given. Jamie Bell proves that he can take on tough roles and make them appear naturally simple and Devon Alan is a sensitive purveyor of a damaged boy.

If there were just some way to condense this two-hour film down to tolerable proportions, this would be a truly fine film. Be patient with it and you will be observing the work of a director who will probably become an important voice. Grady Harp

In the country of Drees County, the widow hard worker John Munn (Dermot Mulroney) lives in a simple rural isolated property with his rebel and troubled son Chris (Jamie Bell) and his sick son Tin (Devon Alan) and no friends. When his brother Deel Munn (Josh Lucas) unexpectedly arrives in his house on probation, John welcomes him. However, the real intentions of Deel lead the family to a tragedy, forcing the boys to leave home.

"Undertow" is a low paced movie, with a short story, great development of characters and excellent performances. There are no big surprises along the story and in spite of the introduction of the film inducing that it is based on a true event, I have not found any reference in Internet about this murder. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Contra Corrente" ("Undertow")

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.