JOE BELL. Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, and Connie Britton. Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green. Rated M (Mature themes, coarse language, sexual references and references to suicide). 93 min.
This American biographical film is based on a screenplay written by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana. It tells of a teenager, Jadin (Miller), who informs his father, Joe (Wahlberg), that he is being bullied at school because he is gay. The two co-writers of the film shared an Oscar for their screenplay of Brokeback Mountain (2015). Jake Gyllenhaal who starred in Brokeback Mountain was heavily involved in the making of this film.
Joe is a 45-year-old working class father and lumber worker, who battles with private prejudices and a fiery temperament that reacts insensitively to his 15-year-old son, Jadin, telling him he is gay and that he is being persecuted at school for being so. Joe tells Jadin that he should know how to defend himself, and everything will be all right. Jadin’s mother, Lola (Britton) tells Jadin that his parents love him, but Jadin continues to be bullied by his fellow students at school, and is assaulted by them in the school’s locker room. The school counsels Jadin not to press charges. When Jadin’s harassment continues, he hangs himself, and Lola finds his suicide note.
After Jadin’s death, Joe tells Lola that he wants to walk across America 5000 miles from La Grande, Oregon to New York City to honour his son and to raise public awareness about the evils of bullying – Jadin told his father he wanted to spend life after high school in New York City to share its excitement. When the walk begins, the film enters fantasy mode as father and son walk together. Joe speaks to his son along the way about bullying, and being judged to be different, and he tries to confront the knowledge that he never considered for a moment that Jadin might take his life. The film ends with an emergency call about a pedestrian who has been killed on the road. Joe was hit six months into his journey, in October 2013, and died with Jadin on his mind.
The film is a highly emotional drama about the evils of prejudice and bullying, and a bereaved father’s personal struggle with his unintentional complicity in the death of his son. Joe’s walk is a self-reflective journey that speaks to the heart about the personal costs of bullying and recognising ‘differences’ – in this case, costs that took Jadin’s life. The film is a tender story of a compassionate family which failed to realise the full nature of Jadin’s torment. It embeds the messages of Brokeback Mountain in a family-rural setting, and makes a compelling case that they are messages which can be easily, and tragically missed.
Brokeback Mountain was brilliantly directed and scripted around the development of an intense homosexual relationship between two grown men. This film is more thematically complex. It canvasses parental responsibility, gender prejudices, the conflicts accompanying gay identity in youth, youth suicide, child bullying and harassment, and parental bereavement and loss. Brokeback Mountain was reality-based and singularly focused on repression and prejudice. This film mixes fantasy with reality. The fantasy lessens the reality impact of Jadin’s conflicts, but the film pointedly targets the legacies left by child suicide. Joe’s grief overtakes Jadin’s distress and anguish. Reinaldo Green’s astute direction deals with a multiplicity of highly significant themes, but the personal tragedy of Jadin in this film ultimately highlights the pain of Joe’s hurting.
The film’s cinematography captures the sweeping beauty of an environment that contrasts peacefully with the ugliness of what we see and hear elsewhere. Reid Miller excels in his character portrayal of Jadin Bell, and Mark Wahlberg nails parental hurting. Wahlberg impressively captures the anguish of a parent, who, too late, realises he tried to avoid risks when people prejudicially claimed his son to be different from what Jadin knew himself to be.
Roadside Films
Released 2 September 2021