Wahlberg has spent most of the aughts starring in fact-based films (usually directed by frequent-partner-in-crime Peter Berg) as the resident hero, the one who\u2019s been through hell and back and should get all the flowers for his hard work and sacrifice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is yet another based-on-a-true-story film (which premiered at last year\u2019s Toronto Film Festival) where Wahlberg goes through emotional and physical hell. He plays the man who went on a \u201cforgiveness walk\u201d from his La Grange, Oregon homestead to New York City, to raise awareness about bullying. Dude literally spent six months rolling his gear through highways, stopping at school assemblies along the way to remind teens that picking on others who are different is not cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He does this for his teenage son Jadin (Reid Miller), an out-and-proud lad who unfortunately had to deal with taunts, insults, and worse from male classmates. We see in flashbacks how Joe reluctantly tried to support his kid, giving him the OK to be in the cheerleading squad \u2014 but only if he rehearsed in the cheers on the backyard instead of on the front lawn. (Because of, you know, the neighbors!<\/em>) Jadin also accompanies Joe on this trek, as they surprisingly bond over Lady Gaga\u2019s \u201cBorn This Way\u201d and cook up asparagus that they find growing on the side of the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you know the story of both Jadin and Joe Bell, then you know how tragic this gets. But, even if you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll most likely know how this plays out the minute you first see Wahlberg and Miller on the road, trying not to get flattened by eighteen-wheelers. Drearily shot by Monsters and Men<\/em> director Reinaldo Marcus Green (who took over directing duties from Cary Joji Fukunaga, who still holds a producer credit), Bell<\/em> is predictably woeful. The late author Larry McMurtry and his screenwriting partner Diana Ossana were called on to write the script, since they already tackled gay men going through hardships in rural areas (and won Oscars for it) with their adaptation of Brokeback Mountain<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though the filmmakers give us a nauseating moment or two of Jadin taking verbal and physical abuse, this ain\u2019t about the kid (even though Miller does a superb job playing a mature teen trying to stay strong in a hateful environment). It\u2019s about his old man, who really isn\u2019t that appealing or compelling a character. Wahlberg works his working-class magic\u2014 he once again dons a scraggly, struggle beard that doesn\u2019t connect\u2014 to get us to sympathize with someone who doesn\u2019t seem all that dedicated and determined in his cause. When his wife (Connie Britton, once again in wine-swigging, keeping-it-together mom mode) and younger son (Maxwell Jenkins) come to visit, he seems more concerned with watching footage of the boy\u2019s wrestling matches than telling them about his travels. Nevertheless, he marches on, briefly touching lives here and there, whether it\u2019s some people at a gay bar \u2014 including a Dolly Parton impersonator \u2014 or a lawman (a very welcome Gary Sinise) who also had some issues to work on when his son came out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bell<\/em> is a more maudlin facsimile of movies like Into the Wild<\/em> and Wild<\/em>, fellow fact-based films about lost, tormented souls who go on lonesome journeys looking for peace, self-discovery, etc. (Green even got Jacques Jouffret, who was a camera operator for Into the Wild<\/em> \u2014 and who worked on various Wahlberg films \u2014 to do the cinematography.) The movie was originally titled Good Joe Bell<\/em>, but Wild Joe Bell<\/em> would\u2019ve been a more apropos title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything, it appears Joe Bell<\/em>, much like that Justin Timberlake movie Palmer<\/em><\/a> on Apple TV+, is out here trying to convince all the blue-collar dads in middle America with gay kids to stop being emotionally stunted assholes and tell your kids you love them no matter what. As drab and formulaic as this film is, you can\u2019t fault it for that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Joe Bell” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/joe-bell2-1024x682.jpg\")
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