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Undertow

Play trailer Poster for Undertow R 2004 1h 47m Mystery & Thriller Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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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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Undertow

Undertow

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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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Critics Reviews

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Scott Foundas Variety 03/26/2009
A deep-fried piece of Southern Gothic that wears its unpleasantness like a merit badge... Go to Full Review Ben Walters Time Out 08/16/2007
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. Go to Full Review Empire Magazine 06/25/2005
3/5
A poetic, atmospheric drama that's worth seeing despite Green's struggle to blend character drama with more conventional thrills. Go to Full Review David Walsh World Socialist Web Site 02/15/2021
The characters are too arbitrarily drawn, they verge on the merely eccentric. Go to Full Review Paul Dale The List 04/24/2019
4/5
This white trash fairytale is no masterpiece, but its sinister otherworldliness deserves to be applauded. Go to Full Review James Kendrick Q Network Film Desk 03/29/2016
3.5/4
its marriage of conventional thriller dynamics and unexpected visual potency marks it as something both utterly unique and reliably familiar Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Tony E @RT58600769 11/21/2021 Overall pretty boring. Disappointing for a director who typically does better See more 10/27/2020 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. See more 08/11/2020 Seriously, one of THE WORST, ridiculous and confusing movies I have ever seen! Just awful. I will never get that time back. Ugh. 🤢🤢🤢 See more Cait G @RT63484643 05/11/2020 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. See more Andrew F @RT15777998 07/27/2018 my personal pick for best film of all time. introduced me to the wonder and quality of independent cinema. See more ashley h @ashleyhobgood87 03/19/2018 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. See more Read all reviews
Undertow

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Cast & Crew

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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

Violet

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Undertow

Undertow (2004) DERMOT MULRONEY stars as John in United Artists' UNDERTOW. A scene from the film "Undertow." DEVON ALAN and JAMIE BELL star as Tim and Chris in United Artists' UNDERTOW. JOSH LUCAS stars as Deel in United Artists' UNDERTOW. A scene from the film "Undertow."A scene from the film "Undertow." Undertow (2004) View more photos

Movie Info

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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