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Good Joe Bell is a Good Enough Journey: TIFF Review

Photo: Courtesy of TIFF
Photo: Courtesy of TIFF

One of the things you won’t see a lot of at this year’s TIFF are mega-celebrities. Sure, there are recognizable names and hundreds of talented artists at work, but true marquee movie stars are few and far between this year only because there are fewer movies to screen due to the pandemic.

Good Joe Bell, the last Gala Presentation to premiere at the festival, changes that with its two stars. The first is Mark Wahlberg, a Hollywood heavyweight by all measures playing the title role of Joe Bell. But the second is young Reid Miller, playing his son Jadin Bell. With a performance this good, he’s a superstar in the making.

Based on a true story and two real people, Jadin Bell came out as gay to his parents, including Joe. When he was mercilessly bullied and targeted at school, Joe Bell began a walk - on foot - from his home in Oregon to New York City, stopping to speak publicly about his son’s treatment along the way.

The movie is about acceptance, yes, and how Joe finally makes peace with who his son is and what he does to make things right after how he’s reacted before. But it’s equally about Jadin’s acceptance and forgiveness of his father.

Joe and Jadin’s relationship carries the film, and the scenes of Wahlberg and Miller’s walks on country roads are the best in the movie. The film is a short 90 minutes including credits, and more time seeing the two of them together would have made the relationship even more intriguing.

But the other thing I wanted more of is seeing Miller as Jadin. He’s come a long way from 2018’s Santa Jaws (which I promise is a real movie), and he acts with wisdom and conviction ways beyond a teenager. Miller’s part is the best in the whole film and seriously Oscar-worthy. A memorable moment is Joe being confronted by men mocking the gay population. When he walks away, Jadin stands up to Dad and says "It's those people who are the problem."

This is also Wahlberg’s best work in years, putting his tough guy shell to great use. Mark’s performance has him doing something that doesn’t often define his acting - his quietness and his active contemplation to carefully choose what to do next.

If you don’t know the true story that inspired the film, do NOT Google or research it in advance. The story’s two twists are questionably effective, but a basic look online of the real Joe and Jadin Bell will ruin them both, and it’s best to go in blind.

Screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, another story about the gay experience in America’s heartland. Until they wrote Good Joe Bell, they hadn’t written a film in the 15 years since.

It goes to show the synthesis of talent both old and new, veteran and emerging, these talents are highly compatible. This film isn’t among the starry must-sees of the festival, but it’s a solid motion picture with an admirable story to tell. And most days, for most audiences, that’s more than good enough.

Good Joe Bell

7 out of 10

Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green.

Starring Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, Connie Britton and Gary Sinise.

Streaming on TIFF’s Bell Digital Cinema on Friday September 18th and playing at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Saturday September 19th, with tickets available online here.

This review is part of Oakville News 12-part series covering the 45th Toronto International Film Festival. Read here about watching all 57 movies at this year’s TIFF. A full roundup of reviews from all movies at TIFF so far can be read here.

Read more reviews and entertainment news @MrTyCollins on Facebook and Twitter.