'Joe Bell' movie review: Mark wahlberg plays the father of a bullied teen in fact-based drama. – The Washington Post

Quantrell D. Colbert

Roadside Points of interest

Ranking: 



 (1.5 stars)

Primarily based on a real story concerning the bullying of a homosexual teenager and its tragic penalties, the drama “Joe Bell” has a message to ship. That message, which is sweet and mandatory — pressing even — isn’t merely the purpose of this well-meaning film. It’s the entire plot, which follows {the teenager}’s father, performed by Mark Wahlberg, as he undertakes a mission to boost consciousness concerning the results of homophobia by strolling throughout America whereas giving speeches. However as delivered by this movie and its titular essential messenger, these phrases feels much less very important than perfunctory, extra preachy than actually, deeply felt.

Impressed by the lifetime of Joe Bell, a person who got down to stroll from his dwelling in Oregon to New York after his 15-year-old son Jadin was picked on and tormented at college — resulting in an particularly horrible consequence in 2013 — the movie stars Wahlberg within the title position, as Joe hikes from small city to small city, talking in entrance of faculty teams and different small gatherings. His remarks are quick and awkward. Adopting a scowl, a trucker cap, a scruffy beard and a countrified accent, Wahlberg’s Joe simply doesn’t know what to say to persuade anybody of something, together with his son (Reid Miller), who seems in flashbacks to have had a strained relationship together with his father, and a considerably higher one together with his mom (Connie Britton).

Then again, the connection between Joe and Jadin appears fairly good in scenes from the highway, the place the boy seems as a metaphorical apparition to assist Dad work by means of his guilt and discover closure about his position within the tragedy that precipitates Joe’s journey. Their imaginary conversations are a gimmick, in fact, and a heavy-handed one at that. Though the script was written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana, who share a writing Oscar for “Brokeback Mountain,” don’t let that idiot you. “Joe Bell” bears no similarity to their subtly understated 2005 adaptation of Annie Proulx’s quick story about homosexual cowboys in love, different the theme of homosexuality and the West.

Quantrell D. Colbert

Roadside Points of interest

Mark Wahlberg, left, and Gary Sinise in “Joe Bell.”

Though Miller is great because the doomed teen, Wahlberg appears out of his league right here, besides within the actor’s rendering of Joe’s acute discomfort with public talking and confrontation — which is odd in a film that wears its coronary heart, and its classes, on its sleeve. Maybe the tongue-tied Everyman is true to life. The true Joe Bell wasn’t a media creation, however a flesh-and-blood one that hoped his actions would communicate louder than his phrases.

Nonetheless, as Joe makes his approach towards New York, the character looks like he’d choose it if everyone simply left him alone. Emotional scenes — or not less than these through which Joe isn’t yelling and cussing at Jadin and the boy’s finest buddy Marcie (Morgan Lily) to take their cheerleading follow periods to the yard, the place the neighbors can’t see — appear taxing on Wahlberg’s skills, that are arguably higher suited to motion movies just like the sci-fi reincarnation thriller “Infinite.”

There’s some character improvement right here: Joe finally will get higher at making his case to strangers, due to suggestions from his son, who lives solely in Joe’s thoughts (and as a slipshod storytelling gadget in service of the primary character’s redemption). Joe additionally finds a small measure of peace relating to his complicity in Jadin’s destiny, making the film’s deal with the daddy, slightly than the son, really feel out of whack.

“Joe Bell” tells a really particular story about martyrdom. In a approach, although, it additionally looks like a tiny bid for redemption by Wahlberg, who was himself convicted of an assault, at age 16, towards two Vietnamese males in 1988 Dorchester, Mass. The long-ago echo of that real-world assault — arguably one other hate crime, for which the actor served 45 days — reverberates all through what’s in the end the vacancy of “Joe Bell,” like a name for forgiveness of one other kind.

R. At space theaters. Incorporates sturdy language, together with offensive slurs, some disturbing materials and teenage partying. 93 minutes.

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