Traditionally challenging and provocative, Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco never had more eyes on him than in 2020 when his feature New Order had a highly successful and talked-about film festival run. Screening as part of the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival, Franco quickly wrote and directed his follow-up film titled Sundown that while easier to digest still is a layered and worthy outing for the director.
Vacationing in Acapulco, a family emergency forced an entire family to pack up and rush back home, but the father, Neil (Tim Roth) accidentally leaves his passport and agrees to take a later plane to meet them at home. It is slowly revealed that Neil isn’t ready to go home and has used this as an excuse to be able to escape the problems of his life and return to his vacation getaway. Neil will one day have to answer for his actions, but today he is ready to lay out in the sun and breathe in the ocean air.
Clearly compared to the disturbing political dystopia of New Order, Sundown is sure to disappoint some with its lack of relevant needed depth, but it would be a disservice to berate the film with claims of it being hollow. Instead, Sundown is a rather engaging character study with underlying themes regarding the white upper class and their need to escape from conflict. The success found in this is largely due to Tim Roth who predictably gives a strong lead performance, filled with selfishness yet understanding. The character of Neil is the largest point of complexity for audiences to chew on from the feature. While Neil is undeniably a bad man as he leaves his family and specifically his wife in a moment of breakdown for selfish gain, it also is hard not to understand why his character would feel overwhelmed and want distance. It isn’t that it justifies his behavior, but it feels more layered and complex than one might expect.
The hidden secret gem of the film and Neil’s narrative is Charlotte Gainsbourg who plays his wife Alice. While the audience can at first assume the pain Alice is going through, this is realized directly as Alice makes her way to Neil to figure out what is happening once his communication becomes vague and provides the film its emotional core. She doesn’t just want an emotional support to fall on but has found someone who has agreed to be that only to come massively short. It is a rather nihilistic outlook on the modern state of love, but doesn’t negate the positive nature of that emotion. There still is a connection between these individuals but due to Neil’s shortcomings, it never will live up to its potential.
This relationship drama is told on the backdrop of a rather beautiful tourist town that carries a criminal underbelly that helps add some grit to the narrative. While this is easily the less interesting side of the plot when compared to the emotional drama, this does give a catalyst for the relationship between Neil and Alice to be pushed as they become intertwined with some dangerous individuals. This within itself adds a thematic layer showing the turmoil and dysfunction the lies beneath the beauty and perfect appearance of this area which acts as a somewhat metaphor for the relationship being focused on. While the film goes a bit too long in this exploration and side of the film, it never fully takes away from the relationship drama and the film still stands as both effective and watchable.
While Sundown might not be the same type of revelation that New Order was, it is yet another strong outing for Michel Franco. Both Tim Roth and Charlotte Gainsbourg give some of the best work of their careers, while the thematic weight of their relationship weighs heavily on the audience. For those who get the chance, the film is clearly a worthwhile viewing experience and feels destined to be an underappreciated piece of Franco’s career overall.