‘Union County’ Brings Authenticity to an Opoid-Addiction Drama

The biggest compliment a moviegoer can likely give to writer-and-director Adam Meeks is to note that his debut movie, “Union County,” is close to seamless. Not a few filmmakers have fudged the boundaries between the fictional and the documentary, but Mr. Meeks isn’t being underhanded or promiscuous in his traversal of the imaginative and the actual. He’s being as true as he possibly can be under the circumstances. The results are generous in their tidings.The story in “Union County” is simple. Cody Parsons (Will Poulter) is a soul in thrall to addiction — opioids, to be specific. He’s tried the patience of his family, particularly an older sister, Katrina (Emily Meade), and has had numerous run-ins with the law. Cody is twenty-something, poorly educated, barely articulate, shabbily dressed, and living in his car. His skin is mottled, clammy, and pale. Cody is a mess. Welcome to rural Ohio.Cody has been mandated by the court to participate in a drug rehabilitation program. We meet him as he shuffles to a lectern in order to address a local judge. Cody isn’t the first person to have done so: We’ve already heard the testimony of other recovering addicts. These characters address us directly as if we were seated at the bench. Though the judge does appear later in the proceedings, we hear him, at first, only as a voice. He’s forbearing, this jurist, but it’s clear that his kindness has been tested.Among the line-up of recoverees waiting his turn at the lectern is Cody’s brother, Jack (Noah Centineo). Blood relatives, they’re not: Jack and Cody grew up in the same foster home. It’s been a while since they’ve seen each other. The reunion is awkward, but also fortuitous since Jack works in a lumber yard and manages to finagle a job for Cody. It’s not brain surgery, the work, but it is honest labor. The two men reconnect notwithstanding the judge’s warning to Cody about Jack’s iffy history with recovery.Cody is under the supervision of counselors, Jim (Danny Wolohan) and Annette (Annette Deao), and this is where Mr. Meeks’ traversal of narrative invention and facts-on-the-ground gets complicated. Ms. Deao graduated from college majoring in both Psychology and Music and Theatre Performance. For the past twenty or so years, she’s been working at Logan County, Ohio, as Grants and Specialized Docket Administrator for the Court of Common Pleas. Mr. Meeks bumped into Ms. Deao while he was visiting family in The Buckeye State, and took more than a passing interest in the stories that she had to tell.Mr. Meeks’ film is Ms. Deao’s feature film debut, but she’s not the only first-timer in front of the camera. The aforementioned judge is none other than the honorable Kevin P. Braig. Many of the individuals whose stories are told in “Union County” are actual participants in a very real program. Call this stunt casting if you like, but a measure of Mr. Meeks’ success as a director is that the actors in his film are indistinguishable from the non-professionals, and vice-versa. The old saw about an artist using a lie to tell the truth is made elastic here; rewarding, too.The only plot point that comes off as contrived is the touch-and-go relationship between Jack and Cody: The biblical dynamic of the good brother and the bad brother shows its hand too readily. What we don’t necessarily see coming is the touch-and-go rehabilitation of Cody, who evinces remarkable progress in his behavior, demeanor and pallor, even as we are left in doubt about his ultimate success. Mr. Poulter fully inhabits a character by employing dramatic means that are selective, steady and spare. His performance is of a piece with a picture that is as tempered in affect as it is deep with human emotion. “Union County” is an understated movie of tender means.

‘Union County’ Brings Authenticity to an Opoid-Addiction Drama

‘Union County’ Brings Authenticity to an Opoid-Addiction Drama

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