“Sundown” (MA) ***

TO get the full impact of Mexican writer/director Michel Franco’s simple, little (82 minutes) movie about a man who just wants his life to go the way he wants it rather than how his family wants it to be, you need to get inside his head while you watch him from outside it.

When his wealthy family holidaying in Acapulco hears that grandma’s passed away, Neil (Tim Roth) tells his adult sister that he’s misplaced his passport so isn’t able to fly home to mourn her. 

He knows something that neither she nor her children know. Nor do we watching in the cinema know until a single line of dialogue drops the “c” word (and it’s not the “c” word usually associated with the “f” word, neither of which you’ll see on this website,  despite a recent ABC TV program having shamelessly used both).

No sooner has Neil shoved his tear-stained sister Alice (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and her kids through the departure gate than he’s away in a cab, bound for downtown Acapulco to hole up at a rackety hotel, not taking calls, just living the dream. 

When Alice returns a fortnight later, she finds him drinking beer on the beach with a new girlfriend. 

Yes. Behind a veil of family grief, “Sundown” is a comedy. Not conventional comedy but comedy that demands the application of the filmgoer’s brain power to figure out what’s going on inside Neil’s head. It’s a bravura performance from Tim Roth, a gentle portrayal of the impermanence of human existence and advice to play it as well as you can while you can because you can’t take it with you. Mordant? Yup. Worth a look? I think so.

At Palace Electric and Dendy