SUNDOWN
****
Director: Michel Franco
Screenplay: Michel Franco
Principal cast:
Tim Roth
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Lazua Larios
Albertine Kotting McMillan
Samuel Bottomley
Henry Goodman
Country: France/Mexico/Sweden
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 83 mins.
Australian release date: 7 July 2022.
Mexican producer/director/writer Michel Franco is an auteur to look out for but his mainly Spanish-language work can be hard to track down in this country. His latest release, Sundown, is only his seventh film since making his feature-length debut in 2009 with the hard-hitting Daniel & Ana. Indeed, all his movies could be described as hard-hitting because he certainly doesn’t pull his punches when examining the foibles and failings of the human condition, although this recent effort is considerably more enigmatic than his last, 2020’s New Order. In it, he has teamed up once again with English actor Tim Roth, who he previously directed in Chronic in 2015, and set the action in Acapulco in his home country. Franco has said that, “I knew I wanted to set the film in Acapulco, and it couldn’t take place anywhere else. And I knew it was for Tim immediately. So, I wrote the script with those two things in mind… And as soon as I finished the script, I wasn’t sure of what I hadn’t written, which is always the case for a screenwriter, especially when it’s an outburst of writing. But I knew Tim could handle it, and I sent it to him, and he understood exactly what the film was about. He said don’t change a thing, let’s shoot it as is.”
Roth plays Neil Bennett, the scion of a wealthy family who made their money from abattoirs churning out pork products. He and his sister, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), together with her two teenage children, Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan) and Colin (Samuel Bottomley), are on holiday in Acapulco when they receive some shocking news. Checking out of their luxury digs in a hurry, they head for the airport to fly back to England but, when they get there, Neil says he’s left his passport back at the hotel and he promises to catch a later flight once he’s retrieved it, so the rest of the family fly off to London. Instead, Neil checks into cheap waterfront lodging away from the tourist resorts and stops answering his phone, spending his days drinking beer and reclining in the sun. He also meets Berenice (Iazua Larios), a local woman who works in a nearby tienda, and the two of them begin a casual romantic liaison. Meanwhile, needless to say, Alice has freaked out because she hasn’t heard from her brother, so she returns to Mexico to find out what has happened to him and another shocking event takes place. But whatever terrible event befalls Neil, and there are quite a few, he remains totally disengaged.
Sundown can be extremely frustrating at times, albeit in a good way. Neil barely speaks so we, like Alice, are left completely in the dark regarding the motivations for his actions… or should that be, inaction. This, however, adds to the film’s tension. Is he suffering from some sort of mid-life crisis, is he depressed, is he on the run from something or is there something more dire causing his behaviour? Slowly - and the pace is slow - the truth emerges but, when it does, like in some kind of Antonioni movie, it still doesn’t completely supply all the answers we seek. Roth is terrific as a man who, while seemingly having it all, seems to have lost all desire to live. He just exists and Gainsbourg does an excellent job of conveying her, and our, exasperation with his lassitude. Franco’s strong screenplay raises fascinating questions about the how and why of existence but its inconclusiveness won’t be to everyone’s taste. It is, as the director states, a movie “about a specific family, but the movie speaks to larger issues, like economic inequality, breakdown in communications, violence in many forms. The family is very particular. I hope people will relate and find universal themes, but they exist in their own unique universe in the way they relate to each other.” It will stay with you long after the sun goes down.
Screenplay: Michel Franco
Principal cast:
Tim Roth
Charlotte Gainsbourg
Lazua Larios
Albertine Kotting McMillan
Samuel Bottomley
Henry Goodman
Country: France/Mexico/Sweden
Classification: MA15+
Runtime: 83 mins.
Australian release date: 7 July 2022.
Mexican producer/director/writer Michel Franco is an auteur to look out for but his mainly Spanish-language work can be hard to track down in this country. His latest release, Sundown, is only his seventh film since making his feature-length debut in 2009 with the hard-hitting Daniel & Ana. Indeed, all his movies could be described as hard-hitting because he certainly doesn’t pull his punches when examining the foibles and failings of the human condition, although this recent effort is considerably more enigmatic than his last, 2020’s New Order. In it, he has teamed up once again with English actor Tim Roth, who he previously directed in Chronic in 2015, and set the action in Acapulco in his home country. Franco has said that, “I knew I wanted to set the film in Acapulco, and it couldn’t take place anywhere else. And I knew it was for Tim immediately. So, I wrote the script with those two things in mind… And as soon as I finished the script, I wasn’t sure of what I hadn’t written, which is always the case for a screenwriter, especially when it’s an outburst of writing. But I knew Tim could handle it, and I sent it to him, and he understood exactly what the film was about. He said don’t change a thing, let’s shoot it as is.”
Roth plays Neil Bennett, the scion of a wealthy family who made their money from abattoirs churning out pork products. He and his sister, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), together with her two teenage children, Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan) and Colin (Samuel Bottomley), are on holiday in Acapulco when they receive some shocking news. Checking out of their luxury digs in a hurry, they head for the airport to fly back to England but, when they get there, Neil says he’s left his passport back at the hotel and he promises to catch a later flight once he’s retrieved it, so the rest of the family fly off to London. Instead, Neil checks into cheap waterfront lodging away from the tourist resorts and stops answering his phone, spending his days drinking beer and reclining in the sun. He also meets Berenice (Iazua Larios), a local woman who works in a nearby tienda, and the two of them begin a casual romantic liaison. Meanwhile, needless to say, Alice has freaked out because she hasn’t heard from her brother, so she returns to Mexico to find out what has happened to him and another shocking event takes place. But whatever terrible event befalls Neil, and there are quite a few, he remains totally disengaged.
Sundown can be extremely frustrating at times, albeit in a good way. Neil barely speaks so we, like Alice, are left completely in the dark regarding the motivations for his actions… or should that be, inaction. This, however, adds to the film’s tension. Is he suffering from some sort of mid-life crisis, is he depressed, is he on the run from something or is there something more dire causing his behaviour? Slowly - and the pace is slow - the truth emerges but, when it does, like in some kind of Antonioni movie, it still doesn’t completely supply all the answers we seek. Roth is terrific as a man who, while seemingly having it all, seems to have lost all desire to live. He just exists and Gainsbourg does an excellent job of conveying her, and our, exasperation with his lassitude. Franco’s strong screenplay raises fascinating questions about the how and why of existence but its inconclusiveness won’t be to everyone’s taste. It is, as the director states, a movie “about a specific family, but the movie speaks to larger issues, like economic inequality, breakdown in communications, violence in many forms. The family is very particular. I hope people will relate and find universal themes, but they exist in their own unique universe in the way they relate to each other.” It will stay with you long after the sun goes down.
