Sadly, I’ve only got one movie to report back to you all on from this weekend. As you saw, I was busy doing other things (a festival!) and then I just felt like spending time with a good show. After what seemed like a lifetime, I was pleasantly surprised to see one of my local theaters with Joe Bell on their list of films for the weekend, so I jumped at the opportunity to go see it.
Back in the day, seeing Mark Wahlberg play the father in The Lovely Bones really struck a chord with me, and then again in Instant Family. Now, in this film based off a true story, he’s still playing a father who loves his son, but he’s pretty gruff and a little unlovable. He plays the titular Joe Bell who we meet walking on the side of the road with a bunch of stuff and his son. Joe is vowing to walk across America, from Oregon to New York, in order to spread the word about how detrimental bullying is.
Throughout this walk, we get flashbacks in time showing us that his son Jamie, has just come out, and while both of his parents are more accepting than I thought they’d be, Joe’s actions specifically don’t go beyond telling Jamie that he loves him. Joe agrees to let Jamie be on the school’s cheerleading squad, but at any hint of bullying he just up and leaves. He loves his son but never defends him. And that’s a shame because Jamie gets bullied pretty regularly. He does manage to find a boy on the football team who is also gay, but he’s closeted unlike Jamie.
Eventually, Jamie feels that he has no one to confide in and that’s when we learn that Joe has been walking with an imagined version of his son. He’s trying to right a wrong, and for a little while it’s not really hitting home. Eventually though, Joe realizes he needs to be more specific with his message and really stand up to bigots. It is quite inspirational and then horribly sad when it comes to light that Joe’s trek is cut short after he’s hit and killed on the side of the road. It’s a shame because it really seemed like he’d be given a renewed vigor for his mission and even started turning his attitude around for his wife and other son.
Truthfully though, a part of me thought focusing on Joe meant taking the focus away from the struggles his gay son went through. Sure, Joe got a lot of media attention at the time, but I feel like the focus was misguided a little bit. I suppose any light shown on bullying is worth something though, so seeing this touching film onscreen hopefully brings some awareness to acceptance, as well. That was my big takeaway. You can tell your kid you love them all you want, but actions speak louder than words in the end. This film wasn’t knockout by any means, but it’s nice to see Mark Wahlberg break out of his comfort zone a little bit.