Sundown (2022 in Spain)

Elevator Pitch: Neil and Alice Bennet are (I’m going to start off by revealing some things that come later in the film) siblings. They are on holiday in Acapulco staying in an upmarket resort with Alice’s two almost adult children. And are joint owners of an upmarket multi-million pound meat packaging business. Alice receives a phone call for their lawyer recalling them to UK, because her mum is dying. At the airport Neil claims to have left his passport in the hotel and returns to the town while the others go on. He books into a cheap hotel and  takes up a life of sitting in the sun and drinking beer, and in time takes a lover, in Berenice who helps out in a tourist shop. His tendency to drink with the beach low life has unfortunate results and there is more.

Content: There is a bit of sex and nudity, but blink and you’ll miss it. Almost continuous drinking, the toffs marguaritas in the hotel and everyone else beer on the beach. We are reminded of the violence in Mexico when a man on the beach is shot by an assaillant who arrives, and escapes on, a jet ski, and later there is more violence affecting Neil’s family who keep visiting on and off to try to get him to return to UK, in which he shows no interest. There is a family solicitor who keeps them all in line and manages the transfer of ownership of the family business as necessary, but in which Neil also shows no interest.

A View: My wife and I saw this in the cinema in Madrid, and it occurred to me to wonder why we pay the same money to watch a very short low budget film like this and also the same for say “The Batman” which cost a fortune and lasted for nearly three hours. The gradual revelation of what turn out to be unimportant details is just a bit irritating, and my wife and I discussed the ending but did not manage to come to a conclusion. So, it may be worth waiting until you can watch this as a free download. It’s OK but…

Other films starring Tim Roth reviewed on this site include Reservoir Dogs, The Hateful Eight, The Musketeer