Since I started going back to the multiplex lately, I have naturally been seeing more trailers lately, and sometimes there are movies that look at least superficially similar. Take Joe Bell and next week’s release Stillwater for example. Both movies are at least partially based on true stories, both feature a lead actor from the Boston area playing a more, shall we say, rurally-based protagonist, and both are dealing with something involving what looks like gay kids, though I am just guessing about the gay kid in the case of Stillwater based on the trailer. However, I like Matt Damon a lot more than I do Mark Wahlberg, so I was more looking forward to Stillwater than I was Joe Bell.
Oh sure, I still saw Joe Bell, but the point stands.
Joe Bell (Wahlberg) is walking from his hometown in La Grande , Oregon to New York City, talking (badly at first) about the dangers of bullying as he goes. His only companion seems to be his teenage son Jadin (Reid Miller). Jadin is gay, but he was bullied badly in high school, prompting Joe to take this long walk to talk to people. He and Jadin talk, argue, sing Lady Gaga songs together, and bond a bit along the way. Flashbacks, however, show the relationship was not always so good. Joe wasn’t exactly telling Jadin he shouldn’t be gay or something, but he does wish Jadin didn’t, as Joe sees it, broadcast his sexual orientation quite so “obviously”. For Joe, the problem isn’t that Jadin is gay. The problem is Jadin can’t seem to be lowkey about it or something. For Jadin, he just doesn’t want the football team to bully him or send him death threats.
There’s a bit more going on than that, but I’m not sure if I should say more than I have. The movie plays it like a surprise. The trailer more or less told the viewer. And the movie is based on a true story, so it’s not exactly shocking, but I’m still going to keep quiet about that detail all the same.
Now, as important as the message of the movie is, at 90 minutes, it’s rather compact and seems to go by a bit too quickly. Joe’s first on-screen talk is short, low on details, and hardly inspiring. He isn’t a natural speaker, and it doesn’t look like he becomes one at the few talks we see later. He mostly just goes around telling people they should accept folks as bluntly as possible and then moves on. Sure, he gets better, but the movie doesn’t really show him honing his message. If anything, the movie is, as the title suggests, about Joe’s personal reflections on his son’s bullying.
The problem there is, not only is the movie too compact, but Walhberg isn’t a strong enough actor to really pull off the role. He does Joe’s anger well, but other times he just isn’t quite there. A stronger actor might have pulled the role off better. In point of fact, Gary Sinise pops up late in the movie in a small role as a small town sheriff who finds Joe’s story inspirational. He’s not in the movie all that much, but I thought to myself how much better the movie would have been with Sinise in the lead role (even if he is a good twenty years past Joe’s 45 years old). However, the movie as a whole isn’t really built to effectively show Joe’s growth as a person, and a movie that means well just comes across as rather average.
Grade: C
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