I have enormous respect for both Jeffrey Dean Morgan and David Strathairn and this is a movie about the relationship between boys and their fathers. How could this go wrong in any way? Well, unexplainably, it did.
While the story in the film is charming, it is also completely predictable and barren of any subtlety. A big minus was the lead actor, Julian Feder, who had the emotional range of a two by four, while at the same time having no other positive attributes. I mean, his character was not a meathead muscleman who didn't need to show emotion, only punch people, he was a goofy fourteen year old who was trying to get his asshold father to come back to his family. The actor should have gone from crying his eyes out to smashing things and through cold hearted mean spirited and thoughtless words. He only managed the latter.
And this film had so much potential. Strathairn also went with a subdued, more cerebral take, while Jeff Morgan was awesome in how well he portrayed the worthless pool hustler. I mean, even his posture was completely different from his usual roles. Unfortunately he had only a few scenes and that was all. His mother should have had a bigger role, too. I actually like Julie Ann Emery a lot, too, but she had like four scenes in the whole thing. I mean, this could have been another Over the Top. I know that wasn't the greatest movie of all times, but it stayed with me. Unfortunately Walkaway Joe rises very little over day TV film quality and I will not remember it. Too bad.
