Review: Will Poulter plays a shaken man combating drug addiction in the empathetic 'Union County'

See more from the L.A.Times in Google Search.

Set us as preferred Wrestling with the realities of drug addiction is an endeavor rife with pitfalls for any filmmaker hoping to avoid easy judgment.To judge from the earliest, straight-on view in “Union County” of Will Poulter’s Cody — a weary-looking, tight-lipped young Ohio man absorbing the rules of a treatment program as explained by a courtroom judge — the sense is that we’re in for a ride-along hinged to honesty and the unfettered character work of a fine actor.That empathy is welcome from first-time writer-director Adam Meeks, and he supports his approach with a gentle aura of verisimilitude, a mostly locked-down camera and, in the snippets of other testimonials, a suggestion that we’re in genuine spaces, not movie locations.

Eventually, as the film tracks Cody’s progress through this rural stretch of central Ohio, it becomes clear we’re in a fictionalized story surrounded by real recovery participants and counselors, a backdrop of sincerity that allows a well-intentioned performance to breathe on its own.That unaffected authenticity helps gird us for the quietly complicated tale “Union County” has to tell.Cody, who is living in his car when we meet him, isn’t alone as he starts this journey.

Also in that courtroom that first day is his brother Jack (Noah Centineo), a more visibly restless and outgoing soul compared to Cody’s protective reticence.Jack, who is further along in the program and seems to bring Cody out of his shell, also helps him land a job at a lumber mill where he works.

Tagging along to a campfire hang, Cody allows himself to talk to Anna (Elise Kibler) and we notice a potential spark.Movies The London-born actor is distinctive in a flurry of recent work, including the movies ‘Warfare’ and ‘Death of a Unicorn,’ plus a new episode of ‘Black Mirror.’But with that connection to Jack, initially forged as foster siblings but later as opioid buddies, c...