Undertow MPAA Rating: R Entertainment: +2 Content: -2 1/2

In this dramatic thriller, Chris Munn (Jamie Bell) is a troubled adolescent living in rural Georgia with his demanding father, John (Dermot Mulroney), and sickly younger brother, Tim (Devon Alan). Struggling to find his place in the family and the world, Chris often gets into trouble with the neighbors, his father and the law. But he also shares a strong bond with his little brother. It is that bond that prevails when their Uncle Deel (Josh Lucas) unexpectedly arrives at the family hog farm after his release from prison. At first, Deel is congenial and welcomed by the family. But soon, his true criminal habits and vengeful motives surface. He is not interested in family ties but in personal gain and in exacting revenge against his brother and family. And so this threat sends the two boys on the run across the Georgian countryside, in fear for their life.

The opening scene is disturbing as Chris jumps from a roof onto a board with a long nail that pierces his foot, and then he runs from his pursuer with the board attached to his foot. Undertow lacks a strong message and simply presents an intense and violent slice of life with little interpretation of it. Tim has an unsettling habit of eating paint and mud and then throwing up. The film does, however, have a biblical theme. It is the idea that children experience the consequences and downward pull of their parents sins (Exodus 20:5). This is symbolically explored through a treasure of gold coins that the boys grandfather managed to steal. Everyone in the family desires and pursues the coins but also knows that the treasure is cursed. Both enticing and dangerous, it threatens to pull the whole family down as part of the negative undertow of their history. But Preview suggests that you avoid the stronger negative undertow of this films demented violence, foul language, profanity and partial rear nudity.

Preview Reviewer: Shaun Daugherty
Distributor: United Artists