Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Joe Bell’ on Amazon Prime, a Would-Be Weepie Starring Mark Wahlberg as an Earnest Everyman

It’s BOATS (Based On A True Story) movie time: Joe Bell, now on Amazon Prime, casts Mark Wahlberg as a gruff blue collar everyman who’s paying tribute to his son by walking from his smalltown Oregon home to New York City, raising awareness about bullying. It’s a sincere, forthright movie directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green (who took a big step up profile-wise with his next effort, King Richard), and has all the makings of a tearjerker. But the words “Mark Wahlberg” and “tearjerker” sure seem like oil and water, don’t they?

JOE BELL: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: MAY, 2013: Joe Bell (Wahlberg) hoofs it across Idaho, pushing a three-wheel cart full of gear. One foot after the other, you know what I mean? We see him take the stage at a high school auditorium to talk about tolerance and bullying, and it soon becomes clear that public speaking isn’t his strong suit. He’s blunt and to the point and kind of weirdly aggressive, and his speech doesn’t last very long at all. In the audience is his son Jadin (Reid Miller). They stroll down the road together and Jadin calls out his old man on his assertion that acceptance “begins at home.” It didn’t really happen in Jadin’s home, which gets Joe in a real ponder.

Flashback: nine months earlier. Joe’s trying to watch a football game on his new TV when Jadin pulls him aside and tearfully reveals that he’s gay. “It’ll work itself out,” Joe dismisses, before going back to the couch. Joe’s wife/Jaden’s mom, Lola (Connie Britton), hugs Jadin, and then Joe yells at her to fetch him a beer. She lets go and heads to the fridge. Joe is a red-blooded heterosexual who once taught Jadin how to fight. But, Jadin insists, he can’t fight the whole school. He’s being tormented by asshole football bros. Ironic, then, that Jadin is on the cheerleading squad — and kissing the star running back.

The narrative jumps back and forth in time, from Joe on the road, where he drums up attention on social media and sings Lady Gaga hits with Jadin, to back in Oregon, where the kid keeps being targeted and Joe doesn’t listen particularly well to what anyone has to say. There’s a terrible scene in the boys locker room, and another one with a school official who doesn’t want to do shit about it. There’s a scene at a roadside diner in which Joe overhears a couple of rednecks spew gay slurs and wonders if and how he should confront them. There is a montage. (Of course there’s a montage). And then there’s a narrative gimmick, the likes of which you’ve seen before and sure seems gratuitous here, but there it is anyway.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Joe Bell has the BOATS stuff of something like Wahlberg vehicles Patriots Day or Deepwater Horizon, but subs out action and suspense for a sort of socio-psychological journey that Wahlberg seems slightly ill-suited for. Notably, Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana scripted Joe Bell, but it doesn’t come close to evoking the sense of tragedy of their screenplay for Brokeback Mountain.

Performance Worth Watching: Reid Miller is so good as Jadin, you may start to wonder why the story wasn’t told from his perspective. You know, instead of the straight guy’s.

Memorable Dialogue: Wahlberg really Wahlbergs his way through this line: “The truth is all I have! Shit!”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Joe Bell is a perfectly watchable drama that stirs up a few bittersweet moments but never transcends its formulaic tearjerking melodrama. Sure, hanky-dampeners have their place, but the roadblock to empathetic heartbreak is most likely Wahlberg, who hits enough bum notes to make the character mushy, ill-defined and slightly shallow. His Joe Bell is on a path to change and understanding and forgiveness (and patience and thoughtfulness and empathy and, and, and), leaving behind anger and fear and ignorance. I understand the character is questing for a little clarity, but his inner conflict remains opaque, trapped behind the stereotypical straight-shootin’ candor and loudmouthed fluster of common-man stereotypes.

Scenes centralized on Miller and his nuanced performance show more potential for dramatic impact, and he sometimes draws out the best in Wahlberg (e.g., when they banter about drag queens who impersonate Cher and Dolly Parton). Miller is the focus of the aforementioned gimmick, an end-of-first-act twist that I won’t reveal, although I suspect you’ll have figured it out before it happens. The Jadin character is subsequently de-emphasized, and what we’re left with is a by-turns mopey and determined Wahlberg, doing all the stuff we’d expect from such a character. It doesn’t seem like quite enough.

Our Call: SKIP IT. Joe Bell is earnest in its intent. It boasts a handful of solid scenes and isn’t overly manipulative, and you can’t argue against its passionate plea for kindness over cruelty. But all this isn’t quite enough to render it memorable, or even fodder for a good cry.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.

Watch Joe Bell on Amazon Prime