For Henry (Alex Wolff), the 19-year-old unfortunate at the heart of “Castle in the Ground,” crushing pills for his dying mother (Neve Campbell) is only the first step in a wearyingly familiar journey. And as he gradually transforms from grieving son to endangered opioid addict, his descent is so depressingly predictable that, for the viewer, sticking with this miserablist dependency drama could be quite the challenge.
Offering Henry an escape from his post-funeral funk is his neighbor Ana (Imogen Poots), a supposedly recovering addict and a flurry of red flags: She needs money, a phone, a refill on her Methadone prescription. Her demands are nonstop, her visitors shady; but Henry is accustomed to fulfilling the needs of an ailing woman, and Ana slides all too easily into that echoing space. Soon, his mother’s phone becomes Ana’s, who, later in the movie, will also be offered one of the dead woman’s dresses. These quiet expressions of profound grief are the movie’s most affecting touches, a fragile subtext whispering beneath the story’s ruinous swerve into thriller territory.
Unfolding largely inside a pair of grim apartments, “Castle in the Ground” offers a parade of seedy deals and sick people. Wolff is so low-key he barely registers a personality, making Henry not much more than a numb observer of Ana’s begging and bartering. Weak plotting and sluggish direction (by Joey Klein) bury his increasing peril in a story that emphasizes the dead-end chaos of lives controlled by cravings. We’ve seen it before: Faces, substances and locations may change, but the self-destructive behavior and dreary vibe are pretty much constants.
Castle in the Ground
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Rent or buy on Amazon, Google Play and other streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
