Neil, our protagonist in Sundown, is an emotionally solitary man. Played by Tom Roth, in a performance that is equal parts tranquil and weary, he struts through his life with seemingly little regard for the feelings of others, enacting moments of cruelty with a stunning air of nonchalance. Approaching the outer limits of middle age, he is a key figure within a powerful London family that runs a vast meat processing company, but he doesn’t seem to have much interest in business or in wealth. He doesn’t appear to have much interest in anything other than getting away from said family.
He decides to join an Acapulco vacation with his sister, Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg), and her children. They stay in a deluxe resort with live music, a private pool and bottomless alcohol. There doesn’t appear to be an indulgence that the family isn’t taking advantage of. The trip is cut tragically short when Alice learns that her and Neil’s mother has died. They must return to London immediately for the funeral and to hammer out details of inheritance. Only one problem: at the airport, Neil realizes he’s forgotten to bring his passport. As he waves Alice and the kids goodbye, instead of returning to the resort, he asks the taxi to take him to a random hotel. He decides to prolong his vacation for an indefinite amount of time.
His behavior provokes understandable confusion from his family when he barely answers his phone. When he does, he speaks in monosyllabic lies about visiting the British consulate to replace a passport that’s not really missing. His days are spent siting quietly on the beach, listening to locals, desperate to please, talking to him in a language he doesn’t understand. He meets a woman in a shop, Berenice (Iazua Larios), and begins an affair with her. Weeks go by and Alice discovers the truth, prompting a furious return and a demand for an explanation. Neil simply doesn’t have one.
I spent a majority of Sundown content to simply not understand the point of what I was watching. Roth’s performance, studied and committed, is sharp and captivating even if it’s serving a narrative that isn’t merely difficult to grasp, but purposely obfuscated. Writer-director Michel Franco seemed to be weaving a pensive meditation on a man’s refusal to accept his life, but in the film’s final moments, we learn that there is indeed missing information. This moment is more frustrating than revelatory. Withholding basic character information until the end is not the same as a plot twist.
I preferred Sundown when it was just a curio. A unnerving, performance-led micro-study of someone who abandons it all. Moments of sharp violence will make you jump out of your seat, a bracing reminder of the setting’s unsettled political climate (that Sundown hardly touches the surface of how Neil’s extended tourism contributes to this is one of the film’s many flaws). The stark filmmaking and the minimalist performances left something to be desired and there’s something to be said about it’s 83-minute runtime feeling eternal. Roth, as usual, is worth seeing but I can’t say anything else in the film makes a good argument for itself.
Written and Directed by Michel Franco