Undertow (2004)

Undertow:

This, the followup to ’All the real girls’ actually starts of very well. Employing a superb, hypnotic soundtrack composed by Philip Glass and a great cast, this is again a tale picked and processed from the Terrence Malick school of filmaking, with the recluse himself credited as the films producer. However, even he can’t prevent this from feeling as empty and half baked an idea, with a ’been there, done that’ pattern. The story of 2 brothers (Josh Lucas & Dermot Mulroney) united after one is released from prison, and how it has violent repercussion on Mulroney’s sons (Jamie Bell & Devon Allen) starts out in a most unfamiliar manner - part character study, part family drama, but with the now expected detailed eye for scenic beauty and artistic camera work.

Very quickly, this dissolves into a chase movie, without the thrills of what makes such a film work. As a director, Gordon remains compellingly on top of his game, his scripts however lack something of a unique point of view. The biggest difference between his work and Malick’s, apart from the latter having a more meaningful storyline (and not necessarily a coherent one) is that Gordon’s films have a quite menacing promise of erupting violence. This is heavily evident in Undertow and raises viewer expectations to anticipate an explosive burst on screen, but this never happens and lends to the overall dissatisfaction with the outcome. Perhaps all of this should indicate that he shouldn’t try to write his own scripts and let someone else do them justice, for he has more than enough talent to film it thoroughly well.

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