Joe Bell, father of two sons, is on a mission of walking through the United States from his hometown, all the way to New York, where his son Jadin always wanted to live. Through flashbacks, we are told story of Jadin, a young teenager who was bullied at school. And when he came out to his father, how he was not there t o be his support system, when he needed him the most. Bullying goes to such an extent that Jadin ends up committing suicide. The driving father comes up with the walk mission more to give his son and also to pass on the message of bullying. Through his journey, he meets different people in small towns and he tries to exchange the story if his son and tell parents how and why it is important to tell their kids that they love them. In an unfortunate fate of events, Joe Bell gets killed by a truck driver while in Colorado, reuniting him with his son in spirit.
The first 20 odd minutes were interesting where we see a free spirited Jadin walking along with his father on this road trip and also being a staunch critique of his talks to people. He tells him that all these groups already know what he wants to talk about, but he needs to focus more on these other people who are not aware of the subject at all. Its only much later that we come to realize that Jadin is only the figment of imagination of Joe Bell's mind; which makes sense. I mean , when a man takes up a lonely long road trip where he walks miles and miles alone, it is easy for him to make imaginary friends. As I have said before, the subject is important, but the film really never touches upon many things. It is just tackled at a very broad level. Joe’s epic walk is about encouraging tolerance, but it’s as much about his own redemption as his Facebook campaign, which has attracted national media attention. Its only towards the end we see a state sheriff sure his personal story about his son being different, that makes us connect as an audience and being empathetic. If only the rest of the film had struck a similarly authentic, more subtle tone, “Joe Bell” could have been something special. The performances are very understated. The teenager playing Jadin is the one that stands out the most, even compared to Mark Wahlberg.
An important journey, a very important message, it tugs your heart but as a film it leaves you very underwhelmed and leaves you a bit unsatisfied. (5/10)
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