Two young boys run away from home because of reasons. One of them is mildly intelligent; the other has something very wrong with his brain. We know this because he's always eating random stuff and vomiting his guts out. Throughout the course of the movie he eats: insects, mud, paint, a bunch of other stuff I can't remember. None of this is ever explained.As tensions between the brothers become unbearable, the film staggers towards its outlandishly unrealistic and excruciatingly dull final scene. I got less than I bargained for, which is pretty impressive considering how far my expectations had fallen by this point.I rate Undertow at 9.99 on the Haglee Scale, which works out as an vomitous 3/10 on IMDb.

Chris Munn (Jamie Bell) lives in poverty on a pig farm with his father John (Dermot Mulroney) and brother Tim in rural Drees County, Georgia. He gets shot at and arrested when he goes over to see Lila (Kristen Stewart) and breaks a window. They are visited by John's estranged brother Deel (Josh Lucas) who just got out of prison. It turns out that Deel is looking for a stash of gold coins owned by their father which he suspects was taken by John. Also John's dead wife was Deel's girlfriend to begin with.This is a slow moody southern-atmospheric movie. It takes a long time to get going. The lack of intensity in the first half of the movie is a problem. There is enough in the plot to give some tension. Then it becomes a surreal realism journey. There is a poverty chic beauty to the movie like some sort of southern parable. Jamie Bell shows some quality work. It's a bit too slow at times but it has some interesting sections.

David Gordon Green directs a project produced by Terrence Malick and it's a film that resembles Malick's works of his own. It's not about going somewhere , it's about going with the stream, enjoy the ride, the adventure, the danger and maybe you can get something out of the experience if you're wise and patient enough.It's the story of the young Munn brothers having to find a way of saving their lives and run away from their violent uncle Deel (Josh Lucas), who recently escaped from prison, killed his own brother (Dermot Mulroney), the kids father, an farmer who happened to have some valuable old coins, family heritage. The brothers are played by Jamie Bell and Devon Alan, who play respectively, the reckless older brother Chris and the young and innocent Tim, who deals with some health problems.Working almost like a "The Night of the Hunter" from the 21st Century, "Undertow" is an interesting piece about two kids struggling to survive the adversities of life at an early age. Rather than being an tale on good versus evil, this absorbing tour de force concentrates in involving us with the eminent danger brought by the uncle's boys, his perversity and thirst for blood. The character played by Lucas is far from the greatness of Reverend Henry Powell but I find him extremely scary as well. Yes, he's a little ahead of Robert Mitchum's character mostly because the time in which we live allows more things to be explored than the time when classic films were made. The fight between brothers that led to the death of one of them is completely unconceivable back in 1955, for instance.And if the tensions works in reasonable ways, quite realistic, is because the actors involved in the movie were perfectly cast. Bell, Alan, Mulroney and Lucas - all deserve praise for bringing life and quality in this powerful drama, something that can appeal to all kinds of audiences."Undertow" is pure and simple, doesn't need much to make its case. It's not a Malick work but has the same effect and his fans won't be disappointed that he had time and money to put in such a beautiful movie. 10/10

Talented filmmaking from director of Pianapple Express, with a disturbing underlying nerve right from the start. The story evolves around two brothers growing up in a poor, rural farming environment in the southern part of Georgia. Troubles comes when the convicted brother of the father of the boys turned up unexpectedly, looking for some hidden gold coins.It's a well told story, a southern tragedy, with great acting from the entire cast. The underlying terror of the past is haunting in this piece of good film making. The story is perfectly told, but if something's lacking here, it's the final pull of interest. But it's beautiful, sad and heart wrenching from a lesser fortunate part of USA.Well worth a watch, if you don't expect a masterpiece, but a good film.