Jackie & Ryan

Greetings again from the darkness. Complexity of characters, action sequences and plot twists are so common in movies these days that a simple story told in a straight-forward manner can catch us a bit off-guard. Such is the case with this latest from writer/director Ami Canaan Mann (Michael Mann's daughter, and known for Texas Killing Fields).

A romantic drama usually leans heavily on the strength of its leads, and the teaming of Katherine Heigl and Ben Barnes normally wouldn't instill much hope. Don't expect this one to linger in your thoughts much after you have left the theatre, but most will find it pleasant enough to watch … if for no other reason than the interesting songs written by Nick Hans and sung by Barnes. And yes, Heigl sings a bit too … but not much considering her character supposedly had a successful singing career in years gone by.

There is an air of familiarity to the story as Barnes plays a free-willed musician who travels by train and performs in the streets of the towns he visits. Circumstances occur that bring Barnes and Heigl together, and soon enough romance is in the air. Heigl and her daughter (Emily Alyn Lind) live with her mom (Sheryl Lee), and Barnes hangs around for awhile to fix the roof … and other things. Indie favorite Clea DuVall has a small role that adds a bit of interest, but mostly this one hinges on Barnes and Heigl.

If you are one of the many who have grown tired of Heigl's big screen career, you might be a bit surprised here as she struggles to raise her daughter while going through a nasty divorce. Barnes has also done little (since his posturing in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian) to lead up to his more gritty and somewhat likable role. Again, not much here will stick, but it's pleasant enough to watch.

This film tells the story of a struggling homeless musician, and a single mother who used to be a musician. After a chance encounter on the street, they become friends and more, supporting each other through their respective tough times.

I find "Jackie & Ryan" very boring. As a drama, it doesn't work because almost nothing happens in the film. We are shown scenes of beautiful mountain scenery, scenes of moving trains, people playing music or people walking around. Much thought has been put into making scenes nice, such as Ben Barnes writing a letter against the sun then walk away. These scenes may be aesthetically nice, but it's just plain boring. The film drags on too long but there's little plot to fill up the screen time. The romance is unconvincing, and the story is not romantic either so it doesn't work as a romantic comedy. "Jackie & Ryan" is a beautiful bore, I would still rather not have watched it.

Drifter musician Ryan (Ben Barnes) lands in a town to visit an old friend and comes across Jackie (Katherine Heigl) who is also a former musician seeking a divorce and needing to maintain custody of daughter Lia (Emily Alyn Lind). Ryan is ultimately on his way, via the rails, to a recording studio to cut a record with his friend.

Some of the script pages must gotten lost somewhere along the way. All the above sounds good, and we were anticipating a good love story between Ryan and Jackie, but all we got was an outline of a love story with many unresolved issues. We liked the foreplay between these two and the dialogues were excellent and yes, they do get together, but then we really don't know how this all panned out. (you have to make up your own ending). Did Jackie get that divorce? Does she maintain custody of Lia? Does Ryan become an over night musical success? We were looking for a feel-good movie and all we got was an outline of things that may have turned out the way we wanted. Where were those missing script pages? Someone needed to be fired.

Katherine Heigl is still beautiful and is a very good actress and we saw glimpses of all that from the script pages that were not lost. She has that rare ability to make me laugh and cry at almost the same time as does Morgan Fairchild. (you won't let that go, will you?)

Don't really know what Ben Barnes looks like with that beard that all male actors seem to revel in, and he is new to me but his delivery saves him. And he is also a pretty good singer of Bluegrass music - I think that's what that was.

Speaking of music, it was very good throughout and since the story was not as complete as we would have liked, watch this for the music. Ryan's song near the end is excellent. After he recorded it, he was asked by those in the control room if he had any more like that. He says yes, but we don't get to hear any. Boo Hoo!

All in all not a bad incomplete story that just gave us an outline of things that might have been. We were looking for a well developed love story. Didn't happen. You can make up your own ending. (5/10)

Violence: No. Sex: No. Nudity: No. Language: One F-bomb by Jackie.

I'm glad this isn't the much overdone, "girl meets boy, boy saves girl", unoriginal scrip, and typical movie.

There were a lot of thoughtful lines and I like a movie that doesn't "overwhelm" with lots of drama. Nice way to spend a lazy, rainy afternoon!

I've read the other reviews and agree to a point but this is a great movie based on human experiences that we can all relate to. Aren't you all tired of movies about rich people going through different dramas? I know I am. This is a "Down to Earth" reality check for a lot of us struggling to survive in this debt ridden society. Humans will survive this storm of servitude. We will finally come to realize that life is so precious and the people we care about are the only reason why we have a reason to wake up in the morning. This is an example for other movie studios to follow. Relate to your audience or just be another wanna be hit.

Just my thoughts.