- 9
Films like Undertow leave some audiences unsettled, because they do not proceed predictably according to the rules. But they are immediately available to our emotions, and we fall into a kind of waking trance, as if being told a story at an age when we half-believed everything we heard.
—Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times
- 8
Seething with violence, bleeding with lyricism, it's a poem from the junk heap, a cry from the swamp, another night for another hunter.
—Michael Wilmington Chicago Tribune
- 7
The rich soundscape of natural noises creates a palpable sense of enveloping environment.
—Nick Schager Slant Magazine
- 7
Undertow's flopsy-mopsy kids, backwoods kooks, metaphysical babbling, and arch line readings can be tough to stomach. However cloying, the movie creates a powerful vortex. It's surprisingly visceral--at times almost thrilling.
—J. Hoberman Village Voice
- 7
Taking great artistic chances in storytelling and performance style, Green finally fulfills the promise he showed in his fine 2000 drama George Washington as a terrific builder of mood, atmosphere, and psychological suspense.
—David Sterritt Christian Science Monitor
- 7
In equal parts powerful and peculiar, the film is not my favorite of Green's, but it helps solidify his position as one of the most visionary young directors around.
—Glenn Kenny Premiere
- 7
...the more intoxicated it becomes with rural desolation and fecundity, the more deeply in touch it puts you with its characters' souls.
—Stephen Holden New York Times
- 7
...conforms to many of the tropes of a formula thriller but, aided by an evocative Philip Glass score and Tim Orr's beautifully naturalistic cinematography, it transcends the genre.
—Megan Lehmann New York Post
- 7
...may prove the least immediately satisfying of Green's films, but it remains an achievement, emotionally rich and rife with biblical and mythic undertones.
—Nathan Rabin Onion AV Club
- 6
The first half of this downer is an interesting study of a beaten-down family trying to make it, but then the flick becomes a series of chase scenes that play out no differently than anything we've seen a hundred times before.
— E!
- 6
...though refreshingly offbeat in tone, is a familiar example of an idiosyncratic filmmaker, a master at evoking moods and yearnings, who leaves his viewers to connect the dots. The result is a movie that doesn't add up to the sum of its parts, yet some of those parts connect deeply anyway.
—Kevin Thomas Los Angeles Times
- 6
The truth is that Undertow is like a conventional Hollywood movie operating on half its cylinders.
—Owen Gleiberman Entertainment Weekly
- 5
While it's far from a perfect film, Undertow does combine several strong sections of people who are easy to relate to in an environment that remains compelling in its use of everyday objects and life routines to tell an intelligent story instead of relying on melodramatic speeches or orchestrated fighting.
—Rachel Gordon filmcritic.com
- 5
This southern-fried mess of poetic crime-movie cliches is redeemed by standout performances...
—Maitland McDonagh TV Guide
- 5
...hurls expressionistic cinema at a humdrum pulp thriller masquerading as a family drama, with mixed results.
—Ella Taylor LA Weekly
- 4
Except for a few random acts of extreme violence, Undertow's sluggish pace doesn't waver and is as convincing as the character's garbled Southern accents.
—Tony McMenamin Maxim
- 3
...weighed down by bloody pain and soggy poetic feeling.
—Leah Rozen People