The Underneath

Rating:
Summary: A Suspenseful, Moody New Noir - Good Flick But Underrated!
Review: "The Underneath" is new noir, with a moody feel, that has been relatively underrated. I think it is a hidden gem. Steven Soderbergh wrote and directed this 1995 thriller based on the novel by Don Tracy and the 1949 film "Criss Cross." I actually like Soderbergh's version more, which is unusual. I ordinarily go for the original. The focus here is more on the characters and their development than on the action. The use of flashbacks within flashbacks is very effective, which is fortunate because that's how the plot unfolds. And Soderbergh has added some new, interesting twists and turns.

Michael Chambers, (Peter Gallagher), a compulsive gambler, returns to his home in Austin, Texas, after an absence of several years, for his widowed mother's wedding. Michael left town super fast, owing several bookies lots of loot, his beloved live-in girlfriend Rachel, (Alison Elliot), in the lurch, his somewhat psycho brother David, (Adam Trese), hating him, and his mother, who had always adored him and preferred him over his brother - well, still adoring him. Some incentive for brotherly love!

Mom welcomes the supposedly reformed Michael with open arms and a tear in her eye. Mom's husband-to-be is a good guy who works for an armored car company which picks up millions of dollars from banks each week. He kindly offers to help Michael get a job as an armored car driver, if he wants to stay in Austin. Michael see Rachael again and sparks fly. Rachael, however, has a new steady guy, small time gangster Tommy Dundee, (William Fichtner), who has a really evil look about him. When Tommy realizes there is a growing reattachment between his lady and the former gambler, he threatens serious violence. To cover-up the relationship, Michael proposes to work a bank heist with Tommy, which runs into all kinds of complications. My main issue with the suggestion that Michael has reformed, is that the robbery idea was just waiting there, on the tip of his tongue, to be acted on with the biggest hood in town. So, how much could he have changed?

The film has three timelines. The distant past, before Michael left Austin. He wears a beard in this time zone and we get to see him destroy his life betting on college football. In the present, he is clean shaven, and during the heist the film is shot with a green tinge, like a night vision lense.

The performances are all quite good. However, the major villain, Mr. Dundee, is right out of type casting and is pretty one-dimensional. The storyline is intriguing, suspenseful and the ending is a surprise. Overall, this is a highly entertaining film about a self-destructive guy.
JANA

Rating:
Summary: Underrated
Review: A great film that keeps you in a haze of flashbacks and pieces of truth. If you are a fan of The Usual Suspects,The Limey or Out of Sight, You should see this movie. The Disc isn't all that as far as extras go, but the movie packs a punch. So if you are in the mood for a good solid original Thriller See this movie

Rating:
Summary: A WOMAN'S REVENGE
Review: Along with a few others, Steven SODERBERGH is one of the last authors-directors of the american cinema of today. He has the same problems than, before him, an Orson Welles or, closer from us, a John Sayles : how to present something personal and original and to make money and stay in the business ?

The structure of THE UNDERNEATH, a loose remake of Robert Siodmak's CRISS CROSS, is very interesting. Flashbacks and flashbacks in the flashbacks. It's not as literary as it seems and, at least, it keeps the audience awake without any need of explosions.

Soderbergh does an excellent work with his camera which, in its movements, often reflects the state of mind of the hero, Peter Gallagher. The scene in the hospital, in the last part of the movie, is, technically speaking, an achievement.

Bonus features are of above average-quality with an interesting comparison between the letter-box and the pan and scan version.

A should have a second chance DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Underneath Much Under-rated
Review: I have read the other reviews of this film and I am disappointed. Certainly, the film's narrative style contains jumps from one time period to the next. But that would only be interesting if the script and performances were interesting, too. And they are excellent. The film screwdly portrays the hero as a witty, angst-ridden nihilist surrounded by other nihilists (Tommy D and the hero's ex)who are one, and two, steps ahead of the hero, respectively (of course the Joe-Don Baker figure is three steps ahead). The unpretentious psychological depths of the film are one of its strongest features: Michael wears his Dad's suit to his mother's wedding, misuses the word "divorce" for marry" with respect to his mother. The homely, trite, but nevertheless tender relation between the mother and her new husband is a wonderful counterweight to Michael and Rachel's wicked (though much sexier) egotism. Settled age, age that has seen its limits, lived a lot, and wants the pleasures of company and routine are counterpoised to Rachel's cunning, calculating, perverse ambition. The brother figure - brilliantly acted - is an alternative to Michael - for he is dutiful to his mother and law-abiding. And yet, he also simmers with plots, and secretly envies his brother's bad-boy charm, good looks, and way with women. Michael tells his brother, in effect, that only the exhilirating, selfish highs make life worth living: winning a bet, seduction, etc. "There's what you want, and there's what's good for you. And they never meet." That's pretty good writing, and a good example of the diamond-hard-boiled phrasing that this excellent work is full of. I really detest pseudo-knowledgeable film reviews that tell you "the plot lags" or that there are "flashbacks-within-flashbacks." Who cares about special effects for their own sake? This is a movie that brilliantly weds selfishness with our common existential yearning for more and more possibility. It is a morality tale to the extent that it shows how destructive can be the pursuit of total ego-gratification, but it shows us this without also denying that Mom's tranquillity and comfort in old age consists in a vacant stare into the television, hoping to win the lottery. A watered down form of the same despair her son expresses through gambling, irony, and deceipt. A magnificent film.

Rating:
Summary: Great non-mainstream film
Review: I usually don't watch suspense movies over and over again, but this one does.
The main character, played by Peter Gallagher, has serious integrity issues and a shady past, but you wouldn't know by his charm. He is a drifter running out of second chances, what will happen next? Will he give into temptation again? Has he finally met his match?
Watch and it a see

Rating:
Summary: Surface apathy hides raging indifference
Review: Steven Soderbergh's The Underneath is not a successful film. The three stars I gave it are not so much in reccomendation of the film as they are in admiration of its method of story telling.

This is a morose, gloomy and relentlessly grim film noir, its the other side of the coin to Soderbergh's masterpiece Out of Sight. As the film opens Micheal Chambers (Peter Galagher in a suitably morose performance) is returning home to Austin to attend his mother's wedding. These opening scenes are inter-cut with Gallagher driving and Armourd Car Van and flashbacks to his life in Austin before he left as an out of control gambler. The film's first 10 minutes are confusing, but once you get hold of the style it flows pretty smoothly. The Underneath actually gets better as it goes along building to a climax that stays within the established rules of a film noir but is brilliantly realised by director Soderbergh.

The title of this review comes from a description of Galagher's character by his ex-girlfriend. I guess it is also an accurate description of the film as a whole. An underwhelming experience, with a few first class sequences and a unique if depressing atmosphere.

Note: This film was co-written by Sam Lowry who any Terry Gillaim fan will tell is the lead character in Brazil. Lowry is actually a pseudonym for Sodorbergh himself.

Rating:
Summary: Surface apathy hides raging indifference
Review: Steven Soderbergh's The Underneath is not a successful film. The three stars I gave it are not so much in reccomendation of the film as they are in admiration of its method of story telling.

This is a morose, gloomy and relentlessly grim film noir, its the other side of the coin to Soderbergh's masterpiece Out of Sight. As the film opens Micheal Chambers (Peter Galagher in a suitably morose performance) is returning home to Austin to attend his mother's wedding. These opening scenes are inter-cut with Gallagher driving and Armourd Car Van and flashbacks to his life in Austin before he left as an out of control gambler. The film's first 10 minutes are confusing, but once you get hold of the style it flows pretty smoothly. The Underneath actually gets better as it goes along building to a climax that stays within the established rules of a film noir but is brilliantly realised by director Soderbergh.

The title of this review comes from a description of Galagher's character by his ex-girlfriend. I guess it is also an accurate description of the film as a whole. An underwhelming experience, with a few first class sequences and a unique if depressing atmosphere.

Note: This film was co-written by Sam Lowry who any Terry Gillaim fan will tell is the lead character in Brazil. Lowry is actually a pseudonym for Sodorbergh himself.