Sundown (2021) Movie Review

Aftersun – Movie Review

Director: Michel Franco

Writer: Michel Franco (Screenplay)

Cast

Tim Roth (Reservoir Dogs)
Charlotte Gainsbourg (Melancholia)
Albertine Kotting McMillan
Samuel Bottomley (Ghost Stories)
Iazua Larios

Plot: Neil and Alice Bennett are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family’s tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore.

Runtime: 1 Hour 22 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Sundown starts as we meet the Bennett family Niel (Roth), his sister Alice (Gainsbourg) and her children Alexa (McMillan) and Colin (Bottomley). They are vacationing in Mexico when a family emergency sees their need to return home.

Niel decides to stay, pretending to forget his passport to remain on his holiday. He gets involved with a local woman, while Alice tries desperately to get back in contact with her brother. This ends up seeing his life spiral out of control on even more levels than he could imagine.

Verdict on Sundown

Sundown is a slow-moving drama following a family with their own personal problems that suffer a tragedy. It sees them becoming more distant as one member looks to live a different life. Looking to escape the world where he is expected to keep a successful family business running.

This is a drama that runs at a pace that doesn’t keep things going enough. It doesn’t reveal why Neil has made decisions in his life now till too late in the movie. By the time we get here, we just see him trying to get through his days, while others worry about him. In the end, not much really happens and it is way too slow of a movie.

Final Thoughts –Sundown is a very slow-moving movie.