What We Hide tells a moving and heartbreaking story about two sisters who struggle to stay together and out of foster care when their mother ODs.

What We Hide begins with 15 year old Spider (Mckenna Grace) and 10 year old Jessie (Jojo Regina) arriving home to find their mother dead. If they can keep it a secret, they won’t be put into care. They hide their mother’s body in a big trunk in their shed.

The girls live in a nice house. Their mom was a former teacher who got hooked on opioids. Now they were living on SNAP benefits. As long as the card kept getting refilled every month, Spider thought they could survive.

Hiding a missing mom isn’t as easy as it sounds. Their social worker kept coming around checking on things. Their mom’s drug supplier, Reece (Dacre Montgomery), figured out what was happening and demanded money from them. Their mom’s lifelong friend was now the Sheriff (Jesse Williams). He was asking questions, too.

The Sheriff’s daughter Alexis (Malia Baker) was Spider’s best friend. Spider sometimes ate dinner at their house. Alexis was still a bright spot in Spider’s life. Another bright spot was the boy at the market, Cody (Forrest Goodluck). He talked to her about photography. He loaned her a camera and encouraged her to take photos. He said she had a good eye.

Trying to balance normal life with their secret life was hard on both Spider and Jessie. Jojo Regina and Mckenna Grace were outstanding in this. They were excellent together as sisters and they were excellent in scenes where they were apart. The two of them fine-tuned the emotional heart of this film in outstanding ways.

These two young actors made it feel real. Several aspects of the plot were questionable in terms of reality, but the emotional center is what counts here.

Fifteen year old Spider couldn’t hold it together, despite her desperate and creative efforts. The ending wasn’t as bad as the girls feared.

This film really touched me. So many kids lost parents to opioid addiction, it was good to see a film tell the story from the children’s perspective.

You can see What We Hide on Tubi or Sling TV and it’s available to rent from several other streamers.