Jackie & Ryan

How sad this sweet little film by Ami Canaan Mann was ignored by the public. It's on Netflix & I finally got to see it & really liked it. Ben & Katie were excellent together & I was pleasantly surprised by Ben's singing. The only thing I didn't like was I felt it was too short & a little more about their back stories could have been in it, plus the ending was too abrupt for my taste. But that's in editing & not the fault of the actors. If you like music & drama, you will really appreciate this film.

I don't think this film is a great one but somehow it's a good one; good enough to allow you to sit through to the end. Ben Barnes played the Ryan role and performed it with depth. Katherine Heigl played Jackie, also did a good job. But both of them were blocked to be great just because the screenplay (the storyline, the scenario, the plot) was too weak to be evolved into a greater movie and allowed them to become more memorable. Heigl also looked a bit older than Ryan in this film, but since she already got a daughter and under lot of stress to dissolve her marriage, looking older was acceptable. All the songs in this film were not bad but same as the script, all fell short for deeper, more moving and more touching songs. Those lyrics and melodies were also a bit vague and monotonous, short of passion. Ben indeed played guitar well, but his voice was not great, too thin and too narrow without depth and resonance either.

This is a watchable but not great film. I gave it 7 just because I like Ben Barnes a lot. If he could find better scripts and better roles, he could be great. By the way, the girl who played Jackie's daughter was a cute little button, very lovely.

This movie doesn't have the kind of subject matter that requires such a slow pace. Scenes are too long. If each one was cut shorter, it may have been a little better.

Heigl is a really good actress; usually raises a not movie up a level or two. Her accent comes and goes, which I guess can happen. You move away and lose it, but it returns you come back. But sounds like she has been living there for a while.

Her singing is not good enough. Did she really sing?

And I'm sorry but we can't be expected to believe that a nine-year- old gave birth. Sheryl Lee is much too young to be Heigl's mother.

The way the movie ends is nicely done. You don't see that happen very much...

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!

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.