OPINION | REVIEW: 'Joe Bell'

The Bell family, father Joe (Mark Wahlberg), son Jadin (Reid Miller) and mother Lola (Connie Britton) consult with school officials on how to solve a bullying problem in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “Joe Bell.”
The Bell family, father Joe (Mark Wahlberg), son Jadin (Reid Miller) and mother Lola (Connie Britton) consult with school officials on how to solve a bullying problem in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s “Joe Bell.”

There is a stolid earnestness to Reinaldo Marcus Green's "Joe Bell" that, in a way, inoculates it from harsh criticism.

If you know the true story behind the film, I need to say no more -- we won't spoil it for those who want to watch Mark Wahlberg act in a feel-good family drama (though the oblivious might be emotionally bushwhacked midway through and again at the end).

It is such a well-meant movie that one hesitates to observe that it's also kind of blunt and didactic, with overtones of an old ABC Afterschool Special. It simply doesn't cohere and resonate the way it should. My sense is the story simply isn't suited to a feature-length treatment. It's an anecdote; or an E.A. Robinson poem. Stretching it out dilutes it, and not even screenwriters as deft as (the late) Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana (who collaborated on "Brokeback Mountain" 15 years ago) can crack that problem. They try by scrambling the timeline and other textural tricks. It's just not enough.

There's nothing wrong with Wahlberg's performance as the title character. It's a role that suits him, a small-town family man with a little residual swagger and anger issues, who understands that he isn't as evolved or perceptive as he needs to be and wants desperately to grow. Wahlberg deftly conveys Joe's anger -- a kind of free-floating dissatisfaction with the world.

Joe may be confused by his teenage gay son Jadin (Reid Miller), but he loves him nevertheless. And he can't understand why his classmates have to be cruel, why anyone would bully him simply for having the courage to be himself. Jadin joins his high school otherwise all-girl cheerleading squad, the movie gives him a football player crush. Joe wishes Jadin would just do what he would have done when he was in high school and beat up (or at least stand up to) his tormentors.

But then, maybe in high school Joe would have been one of those kids who had a go at the sissy? Maybe. He's still trying to be a better man.

So he sets off on a long walk, from his hometown of La Grange, Ore., to New York. Jadin dreams of living in New York, where he can presumably find his tribe. Along the way, Joe stops at high school and community centers to deliver talks about bullying -- which nobody is really in favor of, right -- and the need for parents to accept their children as they are. These scenes are intercut with flashbacks to Joe's own failures back in Oregon; such as his palpable embarrassment when Jadin and his cheerleading friend Marcie (Morgan Lily) would practice in the front yard.

And, as the walk continues, he has long heartfelt talks with Jadin.

While there's nothing in the film to suggest that Joe ever really gains a deeper understanding of his son, these scenes are well played, though Jadin's character remains a bit of a saintly cipher rather than a real life 15-year-old boy. (Miller's performance is rightly winning praise, even as the the film itself is receiving mixed reviews.)

As they say in the trades, the technical aspects of the film are excellent, with cinematographer Jacques Jouffret (whose resume includes the "Purge" movies) exploiting the prayerful vistas of the American interior, with dun prairies sweeping up to craggy blue mountains while a certain slant of light beats down through the clouds. There is beauty in the visuals, and something in Wahlberg's face that begs forgiveness.

If you're familiar with the actor's personal history, then maybe Joe's act of atonement takes on another layer.

Determined to live authentically, gay teenager Jadin (Reid Miller) inspires his father, Joe (Mark Wahlberg), to overcome some deep-seated prejudices in “Joe Bell.”
Determined to live authentically, gay teenager Jadin (Reid Miller) inspires his father, Joe (Mark Wahlberg), to overcome some deep-seated prejudices in “Joe Bell.”

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‘Joe Bell’

80 Cast: Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, Connie Britton, Maxwell Jenkins, Gary Sinise, Igby Rigney, Morgan Lily, Blaine Maye, Scout Smith, Cassie Beck

Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green

Rating: R, for language including offensive slurs, some disturbing material and teen partying

Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Playing theatrically

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