Dan Kay's southern US-set drama What We Hide plunges viewers into the harrowing world of the American opioid crisis through the eyes of two bereaved sisters. This thriller, available on digital platforms from 16 February, explores desperate measures taken to preserve family bonds amidst tragedy.
A Desperate Concealment
The film opens with a grim scene: Jacey, a mother fatally overdosed on opioids, is unceremoniously bundled into a car trunk by her daughters. The uncredited actor portraying Jacey might question this career move, as the role offers little beyond a tragic catalyst. Jacey represents just one of the many drug casualties littering this underpowered narrative about the super-strength opioid epidemic ravaging communities.
Sisters Facing Impossible Choices
Eleven-year-old Jessie, played with remarkable depth by Jojo Regina, responds to the tragedy with loving words and emotional resilience. In contrast, her fifteen-year-old sister Spider, portrayed by McKenna Grace, displays practised indifference born from years of managing their mother's addiction. Spider's immediate concern isn't grief but practical survival - notifying authorities would mean the sisters being separated by the care system.
Spider assumes responsibility for running the household while fending off their mother's junkie boyfriend Reece, played by Dacre Montgomery. The central premise involves the psychological and logistical nightmare of hiding a parent's decomposing body in a garden shed for weeks, a concept that stretches credibility despite the film's attempts at realism.
Narrative Shortcomings
What We Hide suffers from narrative unfocus, failing to properly develop the various characters who intrude upon the sisters' fragile world. The skeezy boyfriend, hovering social worker Tamara Austin, and solicitous local sheriff Jesse Williams (of Grey's Anatomy fame) all receive insufficient investment to generate genuine suspense or complex character dynamics.
Passing hints of southern gothic atmosphere and fairytale-esque suspension of normality never properly establish themselves. The film's plain realism gradually gives way to melodramatic contrivances, most notably in Jessie's climactic asthma attack that feels more like narrative convenience than organic development.
Redeeming Performances
The film's saving grace comes from its two young leads. Jojo Regina delivers a performance that's both sentimental and gutsy as younger sister Jessie, creating effective contrast with McKenna Grace's emo-ish portrayal of Spider. Grace convincingly depicts a proxy mother whose hypocrisies and blunders reveal her fundamental status as a child thrust into impossible circumstances.
The most emotionally promising plot strand involves Spider's tentative romance with convenience-store clerk and amateur photographer Cody, played by Forrest Goodluck. This relationship threatens to spark genuine emotional resonance and offers wisps of insight about art's potential to transcend trauma.
Final Assessment
While the sisters' rapport proves undeniably touching and the performances warrant attention, What We Hide ultimately feels too facile to dig meaningfully into the American soul or the opioid crisis's devastating impact. The film touches on important themes of family preservation and systemic failure but lacks the narrative depth to explore them with the seriousness they deserve.
The opioid epidemic backdrop serves more as dramatic convenience than substantive exploration, leaving viewers with competent performances in search of a more focused script. For those interested in the cast's work or sisterly dynamics in extreme circumstances, the film offers moments of value, but it falls short of becoming the powerful social commentary it aspires to be.
