Review: TEXAS HEART (2016), mixing elements of the Western with more familiar crime-drama trappings
Mixing elements of the Western with more familiar crime-drama trappings, “Texas Heart” is an intriguing and frequently compelling motion picture, even if, at times, it seems more interested in developing its central characters than in moving on with the actual plot. Solidly acted and well shot, the film seems more comfortable with intimate, character-building scenes than with some of the more outlandish plot developments, which makes it somewhat of a mixed bag. The end result, while undeniably entertaining, could have done with some trimming (or with the replacement of some of its more cliched sequences).
Erik Fellows plays Peter, an L.A. lawyer who is escaping from a terrifying mob boss, Mrs Smith (played by an scenery-chewing Lin Shaye). He’s marked for murder, so he flees to the small town of Juniper, Texas, where he pretends, unsuccessfully, to be a novelist named Frank.
In any case, he manages to meet some of the locals —or most of them, being this such a small town—, including the young and mentally-challenged Tiger (Kam Drabowski) and Allison (Daniela Bobadilla), the typical popular girl (and homecoming queen) with a complicated home life. When she mysteriously goes missing, Sheriff Dobss (Johnny Dowers) accuses Tiger of being responsible, which makes Peter reveal his true identity and defend the young man as his attorney.
Erik Fellows is quite captivating as Peter, giving him an unexpected movie star quality that turns him into quite the charming leading man. He’s intelligent and capable, and even though he’s running for his life, he puts everything on the line for Tiger. Daniela Bobadilla is charming as Allison, Kam Drabowski tries to avoid stereotypes while portraying Tiger, and Lin Shaye is clearly having the time of her life while playing Mrs Smith. She’s deliciously over-the-top, and while this sort-of clashes with the overall realistic tone of “Texas Heart”, it nevertheless results in a couple of fun and even shocking moments.
As said before, “Texas Heart” seems to be more interested in the more intimate scenes between characters. Director Mark David knows how to convey chemistry between leads, and therefore turns some of the more cliched characterisations into honest, even occasionally emotional beats. Peter really seems to be making a couple of potent emotional connections with the locals, something that is both realistically portrayed and effectively directed, without giving the picture a soap-opera tone. Given the material —it’s a character piece set in a small town full of picturesque characters—, “Texas Heart” could have easily been cheesier and more earnest, but fortunately, that is not the case.
Less compelling are some of the plot’s twists and turns. The criminal element of “Texas Heart”, apart from Mrs Smith’s characterisation, is woefully undeveloped, something that manifests itself as a clash of tones: the scenes involving Peter and Tiger, or Peter and Allison, feel real and credible, while his encounters with Mrs. Smith’s two henchman, for example, lack tension and seem to belong to a completely different movie. The fact that David isn’t fully invested in this element of the picture is obvious —he doesn’t even know how to end the subplot involving the mob, which makes it all feel quite derivative and even pointless.
Nevertheless, “Texas Heart’s, well, heart, is in the right place, which is evident given the surprisingly profound development of its three leads. Plus, the secondary characters, played by accomplished thespians such as Jared Abrahamson (as angry jock boyfriend Roy) and John Savage (as Alison’s drunken dad Carl) manage to add some colour to the proceedings —although their characters are somewhat archetypical, they have enough personality and are given dialogue with enough spark for them to break out of the mould a little. In any case, the movie actually belongs to Fellows, Bobadilla and Drabowski, and they do a bang-up job of carrying it on their backs.
“Texas Heart” is competently shot, successfully conveying Peter’s “fish-out-of-the-water” situation as well as the “small-town” nature of Juniper, in a very visual way. The place looks run-down, almost empty, like a place stuck in the olden days, and its inhabitants are frequently hostile, almost afraid of someone who is coming from the big city —it’s the sort of trope one usually finds in a Western, and works quite well in “Texas Heart”. The movie looks a little cheap from time to time, but it’s not something that manages to ruin the overall experience of watching it.
Despite trying to do two completely different things at the same time, “Texas Heart” manages to grab the viewer’s attention thanks to its portrayal of a small, Westernish town, and the development of its protagonists. Dialogue feels realistic, performances vary between the raw and emotional —Fellows, Drabowski, Bobadilla— and the entertainingly exaggerated —Shaye— and director Mark David invests enough emotional power into the story for the viewer to ignore some of its structural problems. “Texas Heart” may initially sound like a bad soap opera, but if given a chance, one may discover it is actually a pretty compelling drama.
