Neil (Tim Roth) and Alice Bennett (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are on vacation in beautiful Mexico when Alice receives word that her mother has passed away.  They quickly pack up their belongings and change their flight plans, but Neil needs to return to the hotel because he forgot his passport.  The allure of the sun, sand, and surf proves too much for Neil who decides he will not return, but his sudden absence will not go unnoticed by the already grieving family. 

Written and directed by Michel Franco for Bleecker Street, Sundown is a sleek but brutal 82-minute family drama.  Despite the short run time, the script keeps its intentions well and truly cloaked for much of the film until the final act when it picks up to breakneck speeds.  The litany of traumas experienced by Neil makes it a very uncomfortable film to sit through, but Franco’s pacing coupled with Yves Cape’s sweltering cinematography creates enough intrigue and interest to keep us invested. 

The biggest roadblock in the way of the success of Sundown is the character of Neil.  He needs to be seen as sympathetic for the story to work, but Franco creates such an air of mystery – or rather uncertainty – around his actions and his relationships that we really question everything we think we know and feel about Neil.  It puts a huge burden on Roth to carry the film, a job he ends up doing quite well.  He is an incredibly frustrating character, but he never totally alienates the audience with his obscured motivations. 

On vacation with Neil and Alice are her two grown children, Colin (Samuel Bottomley) and Alexa (Albertine Kotting McMillan).  Their role in the film helps bring to light some of the more interesting aspects of the plot, mainly, the future and succession of the lucrative family business.  Slowly, the film begins to flirt with the notion of being a high-stakes legal thriller, and while it never fully crosses into the realm of a John Grisham plot, those scenes are some of the most captivating as the characters are finally laying down their cards and being truthful about their intentions. The catharsis of a family meeting both helps to inform us of what the heck is actually going on here while opening up more questions as to what will happen next. The script is determined and relentless and we, as mere bystanders to the plot, are left to witness the careening plot unfold with no clear idea of where Franco is headed, but through the film’s careful composition, we trust him at the helm.  

Vacations can be stressful, and while Sundown lacks the comedy of Ruben Östlund’s Force Majure (2014), they both stem from some of the same core themes.  Sundown ultimately goes off on its own path, and what results is an efficiently paced, bleak, character study of a man looking to escape.  The script is somewhat bare-bones, often choosing its words carefully and not caring to go off on tangents or long-winded backstory; it tells us what is needed and moves on to the next scene just as quickly as it entered. The only libations taken are the intercut b-roll footage to build up the atmosphere and uneasy tension.  It is not an easy watch, and it is not a pleasant family vacation film by any means, but for those who stick with it to the end, trust that while you may not ever feel empathy for Neil, you will understand him.