The phrase ‘Southern Gothic’ – as evoked in the press materials for Union Bridge (2019) – is both wonderfully evocative and a big promise to fulfil, for any project. With its associations with ominous, heady Southern locales, flawed individuals and sinister subtexts, it clearly offers great potential for any movie. Union Bridge certainly takes a share in some of that potential, though its emphasis on atmosphere over explication may alienate some viewers. Underpinned by mood rather than narrative, this is a minimal, oft-times perplexing but nonetheless striking film.
In an isolated Maryland town – the Union Bridge of the title – prodigal son Will (Scott Friend) has returned, after a long absence living ‘in the city’ has left him feeling burned out. He returns home to his mother’s house – a mother whose key focus is to rehabilitate her son’s belief in his family name. For whatever reason, she’s displeased with the associations his father brought to the Shipe family before his death. She expects better of Will – and indeed, it seems as though this is a prominent local family, factory owners with a hand – at least historically – in politics. Will clearly has a lot to live up to.
Being home again is, for the most part, what he would expect with friendly, if constrained reunions with people from his past. However, one family in particular seems to have a lot more going on. Will initially passes his old schoolfriend Nick Taylor as he arrives back in town: Nick (Alex Breaux) is seen carrying tools, seems distracted, and as Will finds out, he has been going to a location on the outskirts of the town to dig ‘for gold’ on a nightly basis, after having visions of buried Confederate treasure. The audience see more – that there is some sinister connection with the Civil War-era, where plans were once made between ancestors of the Taylors and Shipes to commit a crime, a crime which led to betrayal and secrets.
As the days go on, Will gets more involved with the Taylors, becoming romantically involved with cousin Mary (Emma Duncan) – a sensitive soul who has taken to some kind of Wicca-lite to help her deal with troubling visions and dreams of her own. There is clearly something lurking in the history of this place, and soon Will, too, finds himself drawn to whatever must be hidden underneath the ground, seeking closure from something he barely understands himself.
One of the unusual things about Union Bridge is that the human drama unfolding at its heart is frequently dwarfed by the natural world which surrounds it. It’s almost as if, no matter how crucial Will’s journey of self-discovery is to him, it’s only a small facet of life at large. There’s a sense of of people and their drama adrift in an impassive landscape, their stories playing out as just small fragments of much larger stories. The film is artfully shot, with lots of aerial shots and static shots, emphasised by lots of natural light – although the factory stands out like a beacon, overshadowing everything in the town, even the cemetery. As for the characters themselves, there’s very little dialogue. In fact, people’s conversations are sometimes muted altogether against the rest of the soundtrack, adding to the impression that human endeavour is very minor in the grand scheme of things. The ground beneath them seems to be a fundamentally important thing here: characters are left for dead in the soil, or carry it under their fingernails, or recline on it, or have it on their clothes. It is a fixation for several characters – Nick, and then Will, though other characters take an interest in it, too.
However, the way in which the film dwarfs its central characters’ preoccupations and strips back the amount of exposition on offer makes the film very plot-lite, and this will almost certainly divide the audience come the end of the film. Atmosphere is a tricky thing to generate in a low-budget movie: director/writer/producer Brian Levin has certainly achieved it here, but whether through intent or by happy accident, it has meant that the aesthetics overwhelm any narrative development, with the film taking a very attractive, but nonetheless convoluted route to its close. For me, some more integration of the Civil War era storyline would have brought things together in a more satisfying way. Overall, however, I did enjoy the experience of watching this film, and – particularly given the director’s previous writing credits are almost exclusively zany comedies – this is an interesting example of brooding melancholy.
Union Bridge arrives on DVD & VOD platforms on May 19th 2020.