Mark Jenkin’s ‘Bait’ intrigues us with its consistent sense of ambiguity. The narration of this British drama film puts present and future scenes against each other. Strangely, they appear like flashes of memory and create an abstract connection to the subject. This is something Christopher Nolan also experimented with in Oppenheimer to show the trauma of the evil genius and a sense of premonition. Bait does not necessarily lay out its script in a non-linear fashion. But the editing creates an intentionally jarring effect to keep us swinging back and forth between its layered characters.
A majority of interest in watching Bait, from what I’ve read, is due to its distinctly ‘old school look and feel.’ This is because Jenkin shot this feature on a clockwork Bolex camera where sounds couldn’t be recorded on location. The dubbing creates a distinct effect, and so does the film grain. Apparently, Jenkin processed the 130 rolls of Kodak 16mm B&W film himself in his studio.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Bait (2019) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What is Mark Jenkin’s ‘Bait’ about?
Bait follows the story of a struggling fisherman from a Cornish village who sells his father’s cottage to a British couple to sustain a living. The film largely follows the tensions that arise between locals and outsiders due to their different views of utilizing this place. The film’s title – Bait, is in reference to the many ways these people entice each other into doing things by triggering their worst impulses. Martin Ward (Edward Rowe) reluctantly agrees to the purchase of their ‘Skipper’s Cottage’ to Sandra (Mary Woodvine) and Tim Leigh (Simon Shepherd). While Martin struggles to make ends meet fishing without a boat, his brother Steven uses their late father’s vessel to offer cruise trips.
Skipper’s Cottage
The Leigh couple plans to use this harbor-front cottage as a seasonal holiday home to rent for tourists. Their son Hugo (Jown Jacobs) gets his hands on Martin’s fishing net, which annoys him. Back on his way home, Hugo notices his sister, Katie (Georgia Ellery), with Martin’s nephew, Neil (Isaac Woodvine). The seeds for their families’ mutual bitterness grow through such incidents. Besides, Martin cannot over the fact the outsiders have gotten hold of their ancestral cottage. He walks in to see it ‘modernized’ with phony ornamentations. Later, he tells Steven about this vapid exercise and tries to entice him. It almost feels like Martin is upset that his brother is not as angry as he is.
Due to his frustration, Martin parks his truck outside the cottage. It makes the Leigh couple furious since it obstructs their guests from having a place to park their vehicles. While Martin takes Neil out to catch fish, Katie returns home after staying a night away. Tim gets upset that she is not being lectured for this. Martin sells his limited catch to a local woman, who pays him out of goodwill. He keeps his limited earnings inside a box and means to purchase a boat with those savings.
Later in the local pub, Wenna (Chloe Endean) joins Martin in badmouthing Katie, who spends a lot of time with Neil. You can clearly sense their contempt toward these outsiders and toward gentrification.
The Lobsters
A local old man suggests Martin catch lobsters since they pay more. Although he fails to catch any, he refuses to join Steven to make a living. While Liz (Stacey Guthrie) tries to convince him, Wenna pesters Hugo into leaving the pool game. Later, Martin makes another attempt at catching lobsters. Then, he returns to his truck to see its wheel clamped. He gets furious at Leigh’s, who argues that it is their tourists’ parking spot. Martin tries to convey how he is only trying to make a living.
Sandra notes they are trying to do the same. Martin’s uncontrollable anger makes him break the clamp with Wenna’s help. Tim cannot digest that Martin is escaping charges. So, Wenna fights back by throwing a ball at Tim’s Land Rover and hurting him, which gets her arrested.
Martin’s Resentment
Martin continues to make life difficult for Leigh. He purposefully makes noise early in the morning and wakes the tourists, who were there for a relaxing break. Then, he catches some fish with Neil and sells them to Liz. Back home, he keeps his new earnings in his savings box. But he ends up giving most of it to Brian, who helps Wenna get a ride back home. Later, Martin goes to catch lobsters with Neil only to realize that their net is damaged. It was Hugo who wanted to entice the Wards. Back in the pub, Martin comes head-to-head with Tim, who argues about the rightful ownership of the place. Since Liz also sells her pub to Tim, Martin’s anger has no bounds.
The Leighs enjoy the fresh catch of lobsters that Hugo stole for the family. In a tense intercut sequence, we see the couple enjoying the lobsters with fine wine when Katie joins Neil to prepare a meal together. Meanwhile, Martin brings his net to Hugo in the pub and forces him to tie it back up. Once the kid finishes his work, Martin leaves the pub with that net.
While Tim feels no remorse, Sandra cannot help but feels indebted to the locals. Out of guilt, she looks for Martin’s place to offer money for the stolen lobsters. She leaves after keeping a big sum in his box of savings. Meanwhile, the old man who advised Martin to catch lobsters offers to sell him a boat. Martin returns home to tell Neil that he will be the only crew on his new boat.
Bait (2019) Movie Ending Explained:
After telling his nephew to reach the quay the next morning, Martin reaches the harbor to meet Steven. He tells about his new boat purchase and tries to provoke Steven. Martin insists they should keep fishing and not indulge in the chores of hospitality. The next morning, Hugo reaches there to find Katie waking up at Neil’s place. He was there to damage Martin yet again. Since he calls his sister disgusting, Neil comes to fight him. Instead, he falls down onto the cruise boat in a pool of blood. The siblings look at him from above.
At the end of Bait, we see the exact scene that we see at the film’s very beginning. Before that, we get a look at the events slightly before the departure. Steven is shaken by his son’s unfortunate accident. Martin notices that and wishes him to do better. Eventually, Steven breaks open the door of Skipper’s Cottage to take a look inside. Martin follows his brother to find him breaking the glass over a photo frame with their father’s picture inside. Steven reveals that Leighs knocked their mother’s pantry down.
In a brief moment, we see the father walk away from the frame. After their heartfelt embrace, the brothers leave the town in Steven’s boat, and Wenna joins them. In a miss-if-you-blink moment, we see Neil looking back at them. It is a suggestion as to what these locals leave behind or why they leave the place they hold dear.
Bait (2019) Movie Themes Analysed:
The Second Homes
The central conflict in Bait arises from the shared sense of resentment of locals and outsiders/tourists against each other. The film potently conveys the boiling unrest among the locals since their means of survival become outdated or get snatched away due to the new age of modernization. Through Martin, we sense his refusal to let go of his routine ways. Through Leighs or especially Tim, we sense an arrogance about the irrefutability of change. Their clash happens in the backdrop of a radio news broadcast where a certain fear of invasion pervades their country. Amidst all of this, the commonality between them all is ‘second homes’ that they discover, whether by choice or out of necessity.
Gentrification
Bait explores the anger toward the attempts to make a place more refined for a so-called ‘respectable’ crowd by means of encroachment. In Martin’s case, this feeling is partially derived from his belief that his identity is being destroyed, piece by piece. He is made to live without the comforts and freedoms that he was used to living with over the years. Meanwhile, Tim kept getting hold of more local properties to make it palatable to another set of crowds.
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