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Undertow Movie Review

Undertow (Contracorriente) is a 2009 Peruvian fantasy romance film directed by Javier Fuentes-Leon and starring Cristian Mercado and Manolo Cardona. It is one beautiful, original movie.

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“I can’t love you.

It’s not right“

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A married man whose wife is expecting a child has an affair with another man. Miguel struggles with his sexuality and his secret affair, so he forbids Santiago to even appear with him together in town. One day, when Santiago drowns in the sea, he reappears as a ghost that only Miguel can see. It is up for Miguel to find his body under the sea and set him free.

First and foremost, I was genuinely surprised by the fantasy twist that appeared pretty quickly in the film and changed everything for the better. I cannot recount a gay ghost story myself, so it just might be the first one ever made. And it’s something totally different in plot and its treatment as it retains the realistic drama elements with the ghost development only further helping the real drama at core instead of diluting it. Thus, it succeeds in both of these genres with flying cards.

We have seen a gay relationship where one man is out and proud and another is closeted many times before, but here that dynamic still felt fresh as the protagonist is also married and expecting a child. Nobody knows about him, but there is this entirely unique aspect of his sexuality where he might be bisexual as he seemed to enjoy his wife’s company in bed or otherwise. That dynamic was another very complex one and how she handles the realization about her husband was also emotionally powerful and complicated. The script and dialogue are stupendous.

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Santiago is a wonderful soul, and what happened to him was genuinely heartbreaking. That death I felt emotionally even though it came very fast in the game for better and for worse, which is a testament to how terrific the characterization is as I deeply cared for both of these men. Their early dynamic was infectiously electrifying, but also complicated due to Miguel’s sexuality struggles.

There is this one sequence in the film where, after Santiago’s death, Miguel is free to walk carelessly with him on the beach among people due to the effect of nobody else being able to see his lover’s ghost. The resulting moment was so touching that it almost made me cry.

This is the main theme of the movie – acceptance of yourself and freedom. But here, it’s portrayed in such a uniquely different, magical realist manner that made all the difference in the world, and it led to a very poetic, deep moment that is the highlight of the entire picture.

A part of me wanted Undertow to continue just focusing on these two characters and their complex, but obviously full of love and care relationship. And some of the power and simplicity as well as uniqueness were lost with the shift in focus to his wife and the rest of the town reacting to the news about his fling with Santiago.

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Still, Undertow remained powerfully written even in the added wife and town elements. I wished to have seen more of the ghost scenes, but those that we got are uniformly beautiful. The cinematography and some of the imagery are genuinely artistic, accompanying the poetic feel of the picture very fittingly. The acting is also fantastic with every single person delivering fantastic work.