Under the Bridge–Beyond Mean Girls
A true-crime thriller mini-series, Under the Bridge is based upon the 2005 titular book by Rebecca Godfrey and the memoir, Reena: A Father’s Story by Manjit Virk.
A brutal murder takes place in 1997 in Victoria, British Columbia. The victim is a fourteen-year old girl, Reena Virk (Vritika Gupta) whose middle-class parents are Indian immigrants and Jehovah Witnesses. As a new arrival, Reena wants to fit in with other teens, especially the “popular” girls housed in Seven Oaks, a nearby foster home.
Most of the foster girls are from extremely dysfunctional families or are orphaned. One of the foster girls, however, is an exception: Kelly Ellard (Izzy G). Kelly comes from a very affluent family who has given up on how to parent her, but still allows occasional visits home. The most popular girl is Josephine or “Jo” (Chloe Guidry), who dreams of being a mafia moll someday, referencing the classic movie “Scarface” as her model.
Kelly and the other Seven Oaks girls– as well as Reena– idolize Jo. Reena is bullied and rejected by the foster girls, even though she chooses them over her own highly strict and religious parents. To get back at Jo, she bad-mouths her through social media. Kelly, in order to ingratiate herself with Jo, brags that she wants to break Reena’s bones with a bat, burn her at the stake and bury her alive. Kelly’s mom, who eavesdrops on this conversation, ignores her daughter’s murderous intent. All the other foster-care teenagers are intimidated by Jo. Reena disappears and a search begins.
Enter Rebecca Godfrey (Riley Keough), the budding author, who has come back home for a visit and to cover what has happened in her hometown, after a long absence in New York. Her own personal journey propels her into reckless and somewhat exploitative behavior in order to write what she hopes is a bestseller. Her childhood friend, Police Officer Cam (Lily Gladstone of “Killers of the Flower Moon”), a former Seven Oaks resident and a First Nations woman, quickly guesses the reason for the disappearance of Reena but no one else on the police force supports her, including the police chief who is also her foster dad. Cam doggedly follows the investigation, even after the expulsion from the case by her father and her fellow police officers. The community politicians and foster home executive are obstacles as well. Reluctantly, after days of declaring Reena a missing person, the police admit they are looking at a possible murder.
Cam zooms in on another lost soul, teenager Warren Glowatski (Javon Walton), who is friends with the Seven Oaks crowd and wants to break away from their hold on him. But social pressure rules over all and the foster girls are merciless and relentless. Their attitude: what is done can’t be undone. And the weight of the unspeakable propels them to secrecy. But will their silence morph into betrayal?
Under the Bridge masterfully portrays adolescent angst and peer pressure. Without adequate adult guidance or sufficient knowledge of the volatility of emotion and its potential dominance over reason, these foster girls do not have the requisite insight into the consequences of their actions. Through multiple perspectives, mostly unreliable, the viewer is exposed to the failures of emotionally vulnerable teenagers to comprehend mob psychology versus human decency, present actions and future repercussions. The ensemble cast is first-rate and accomplishes the daunting task of revealing the failures of the justice system and societal structures to properly protect underprivileged kids, specifically girls of color, without preaching or manifesto.
The character of Cam is fictionalized and not written into Godfrey’s book. However, the creation of Cam adds multiple layers to the drama, resulting in a more riveting unraveling of motive, means, and opportunity. A backstory on her childhood would have been welcomed.
Availability: Hulu
Note: Warren Glowatsky devoted his life to restorative justice. Godfrey stayed in touch with Warren for over 20 years.