Joe Bell

 3.5/4

Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, Connie Britton, Maxwell Jenkins, Gary Sinise

Rated R for Language including Offensive Slurs, Some Disturbing Material, and Teen Partying

When I hear terms like "gay movie" or "queer cinema," my guard goes up.  Not because of the subject matter (obviously), but because gay movies are typically either campy or sanctimonious.  I'm not a fan of camp and I don't like it when movies feel like UNICEF commercials.  Then I saw that this movie was written by Diana Ossana and the late Larry McMurtry, who wrote the sublime "Brokeback Mountain."  And Mark Wahlberg is as apolitical an actor as they come.  So I relaxed a little, having been reassured that I would see a movie free of fake sentiment and "progressive" slogans I've heard too many times.  "Joe Bell" earns its motions through acting and dialogue, not speechifying.

Joe Bell (Wahlberg) has undertaken an insane task.  He's walking from his home in Oregon to New York City.  His openly gay son Jadin (Miller) has faced horrific bullying from the cro-magnons he goes to school with and indifference by the community and school staff.  Joe isn't savvy about the LGBT community and is a lousy speaker, but he's willing to try and learn.  Cause, dammit, this is something he has to do.  Along the way, he learns a few things about himself and Jadin.

I know what you're thinking.  I thought the same thing too: oh geez, another would-be inspirational tearjerker/guilt trip.  Two hours of hearing the same cliches we've been hearing for years.  But I couldn't even imagine what the lead actor does when he appears on screen.

I've never felt that Mark Wahlberg has great range as an actor.  He has charisma and screen presence, certainly.  But "versatility" isn't something that comes to mind when I think of him.  Even though "Fear" still terrifies me to this day, Wahlberg is still pretty stiff in the role of the psychotic boyfriend.  Yet as the title character, the Bostonian actor is a revelation.  The character he plays is a variation on many of the men he has played: tough, salt of the earth guys with anger issues.  But he plumbs deep and brings out a considerable amount of pain and grief.  He exposes himself emotionally in ways that would terrify most actors.  It's all right there on the screen and it's incredibly moving.  It's a bit too early in the year (not to mention low profile). for the Academy to take notice, but nothing he has done in the past even comes close to what he accomplishes here.

Wahlberg is brilliant, but he is helped considerably by the screenplay.  I've often found that even the most open-minded people have difficulty talking about homosexuality.  Even my friends and family get a bit awkward about it sometimes.  This movie explores that with honesty and insight.  Whatever Joe may feel about having a gay son, he's going to do whatever he can to help.  It's his mission and he's going to do it, come hell or high water.  The screenplay allows him to reflect on what he did and didn't do, and assess what that meant,  That sounds vague, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers.  In a way, I was reminded of "25th Hour," where the central character asked himself the same questions.  There's a beautiful scene between Wahlberg and a cop played by Gary Sinise.  Sinese's character has a gay son, and both of them discuss whether their own personal biases and hurts clouded their interaction with their children.  The scene has more power than I would have thought.

While director Reinaldo Marcus Green is able to nurture an astonishing performance out of Wahlberg, his hand for storytelling is less sure.  He tells two stories in tandem, Jadin's and Joe's.  That's not uncommon.  But he introduces some magical realism into the mix, and that makes it hard to tell what is real and what is fantasy.  It muddies the waters a bit too much and dilutes the film's impact.  If only slightly.

Like many dramas that deal with difficult material, "Joe Bell" isn't necessarily easy to watch.  There are some moments of brittle laughter, including a scene involving Lady Gaga's song "Bad Romance" that had me laughing out loud.  But the film does have some disturbing elements, including a brutal scene of bullying.  The film does do what it sets out to do, and Wahlberg's performance deserves to be seen.  Let's hope the Academy agrees.