In Sundown, Neil Bennett (Tim Roth) and the hard-charging CEO Alice Bennett (Charlotte Gainsbourg) are vacationing with two college age kids at a luxurious Acapulco resort. Their family matriarch unexpectedly dies and – of course! – they immediately head to the airport to organize the funeral in the UK. But Neil fakes an excuse and avoids getting on the plane, vowing to come along soon. Instead, he does the unthinkable and essentially hides out from the family.
Instead of returning to the resort, Neil moves into a downscale hotel near Acapulco’s public beach. Other than wandering to the beach to commandeer a plastic chair and an ice bucket of cerveza, Neil doesn’t do much for the rest of Sundown. Notably, he does make the acquaintance of a friendly local woman, Berenice (Iazua Larios). Berenice speaks very little English, and Neil speaks essentially no Spanish.
Writer-director Michel Franco gradually unspins his tale, and we learn how the Bennetts are related and how wealthy they are. But Franco leaves it to us to figure out why Neil is behaving in this way. Is it just awful behavior – irresponsible and selfish? Is he suffering from a psychiatric or neurological disorder?
From the very beginning of Sundown, Neil’s affect is oddly detached and passive. Is he blissed out on vacation? Is he stoned? Bur he soon becomes bizarrely avoidant. And Neil is firmly purposeful in his detachment. A much better director than writer, Michel gives us so little back story, that we really don’t know how divergent Neil’s behavior is. The critic Mick LaSalle observes, “He consistently seems calmer than he should be, so we wonder what he knows.“.
In any case, Sundown is a portrait of a man who is checked out – for an unknown reason and to an explicable extent. We are curious and decidedly not empathetic; his withdrawal from normal obligations causes harm to others – others who at least deserve an explanation.
Sundown’s 82 minutes is hypnotic. Franco is a Mexico City native and brings verisimilitude to the contrasting tiers of Acapulco beach life.
Tim Roth is excellent as a man who is determined to get what he wants, even though what he wants is essentially nothing. Franco and Roth worked together on Chronic.
Iazua Larios is extraordinarily compelling as Berenice, who seems, well, very casual at first, and becomes more complicated. The character of Berenice starts out as an adornment, but she will become the ultimate test of whether there is any limit to Neil’s detachment.
Sundown is a paradox – an unenjoyable observation of an unsympathetic character doing nothing, yet an engaging portrait of an extreme and puzzling personality.