This publish accommodates spoilers for Hulu’s “Beneath the Bridge.”
Rebecca Godfrey’s “Beneath the Bridge” explores the real-life homicide of Reena Virk, a 14-year-old who was viciously crushed and finally killed by her classmates in British Columbia in 1997. It will be insulting to name this true-crime e-book an correct or compelling retelling of the horrific crime, as Godfrey lingers as little as doable on Reena herself. We be taught subsequent to nothing about Reena’s interiority apart from the prejudiced perceptions of her perpetrators, who’re constantly romanticized. Godfrey even goes so far as to color these women as damaged, misunderstood teenagers, establishing an unnerving thread of sympathy for them all through. It’s a deeply disturbing e-book, not due to the small print of the gut-wrenching tragedy however as a result of Reena is an afterthought in her personal story, by no means delved into past the truth that she was murdered.
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Quinn Shephard’s TV collection adaptation of Godfrey’s e-book is markedly completely different in its intent and execution however takes some questionable storytelling swings (and falls prey to hackneyed style tropes) whereas dramatizing the real-life crime. For starters, the story incorporates Godfrey as a personality (performed by Riley Keough) who step by step emerges as the focus of the evolving Reena Virk homicide case. It is a baffling resolution; Keough’s Godfrey finally ends up overshadowing the complexities of the crime in query, as each character is filtered via her flawed, oftentimes problematic perspective. In a way, it is admittedly becoming that the onscreen model of Godfrey is simply as thoughtless because the real-life writer. Nonetheless, as “Beneath the Bridge” is an in any other case trustworthy interpretation of its supply materials, the inclusion of a fictionalized Godfrey does little to repair or enhance upon the methods the unique e-book fails Reena Virk at each flip.
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Nevertheless, Hulu’s “Beneath the Bridge” does achieve creating intense character portraits, as Shephard doesn’t draw back from depicting the bigoted cruelty shared by the ladies answerable for Reena’s homicide. Moreover, Lily Gladstone’s Cam Bentland is clearly a collection spotlight, as she is without doubt one of the uncommon views rooted in empathy and a way of justice. With this in thoughts, let’s take a better take a look at the present, what it does nicely, and why it’d’ve been higher off taking the type of a true-crime documentary than a dramatization.
Beneath the Bridge is a brilliantly acted collection that in the end feels hole
The yr is 1997, and Rebecca (Keough) makes her means into Seven Oaks Youth Dwelling to seek out materials for her subsequent e-book, presenting herself as a journalist regardless of not being one. She befriends Josephine (Chloe Guidry) and her clique, who’re seen bullying and beating up Reena (Vritika Gupta) earlier than her disappearance at the start of the episode. What units the collection’ remedy of the case other than the supply materials is its sensitivity in the direction of Reena and her story, the place the depiction of the perpetrators’ internal lives is divorced from any sort of romanticization. There’s loads of complexity to unearth right here: Reena is fleshed out with distinct personhood and nuanced motivations, and her absence is handled with somber empathy and the fixed self-awareness that that is not a purely fictional drama.
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Whereas “Beneath the Bridge” may need its coronary heart in the appropriate place, the collection is responsible of overcomplicating the narrative in an try to hold issues attention-grabbing. A lot of the heavy lifting finished right here is because of Keough and Gladstone’s spirited, grounding performances, which are sometimes at odds with the wonky character writing and common pacing. Gupta, who embodies Reena, additionally does an admirable job, emphasizing the real tragedy of the younger girl’s demise as a substitute of interesting to some sensationalized notion of wrongdoing. A mixture of nice performances and flat storytelling, sadly, yields combined outcomes, though Shephard’s dealing with of the present’s doubtful supply materials warrants reward.
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Gladstone’s Cam is an attention-grabbing, important addition to the story, as her character concurrently underlines the pitfalls of regulation enforcement and the genuine empathy of somebody doing their finest inside that framework. Cam, an Indigenous girl, is particularly delicate to the ostracization and xenophobia Reena and her household confronted after they moved to Canada and is without doubt one of the few officers who take Reena’s case significantly. Though there’s not a lot depth to Cam on paper, Gladstone does her utmost so as to add weight to this function, and her presence is sufficient to enliven a collection that sags terribly even earlier than reaching its bleak, hole conclusion.
Reena’s story deserves to be instructed by way of the true crime documentary format, as each dramatic adaptation to date, regardless of how well-intentioned, has warped the reality to an intent. Properly, I suppose that’s the deadly flaw of true crime-based fiction, as not all the things is supposed to be lowered to leisure on a display screen.
