Available at Amazon.com
Director
Steven Goldmann
Cast
Toby Keith …. Bo Price
Kelly Preston ….Angela Delton
Lindsey Haun………..Dixie Leigh Delton
Tess Harper …Dixie Rose Delton
Burt Reynolds .Jake Delton
The Movie
The last couple years have been quite good to Toby Keith. He’s a recognizable face from his ads with Ford, is revered by the military for his USO tours to/Iraq and Afghanistan as well as having success as a musician both commercially and critically. And it’s easy to see why all of this has happened to him; he has an undeniable presence and lots of charisma. It’s only natural that he’d eventually get involved in film. Grossing a shade over $250,000 on a limited release in late 2006, Keith’s feature film debut Broken Bridges may not have been a success by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a strong debut for Keith.
Keith stars as Bo Price, a washed up country star heading back to his hometown. There for his brother’s funeral, he runs into his high school sweetheart Angela (Kelly Preston) and the daughter he never knew (Lindsey Haun). From there it’s a journey into redemption and forgiveness for the trio.
It’s a nice story and all, as the film’s focus is on how the three deal with the events of the past and learn to forgive, its derivative of every other movie about the same subject. Broken Bridges recycles every plotline and structure from the genre and uses them without abandon. It works as a story but its clichéd and formulaic enough to be utterly predictable. The good will developed from Keith’s understated performance, as well as the abundance of good music.
Keith does a good job in his debut performance; he isn’t required to do more than what he can and what he’s required to do he does well. His dialogue is short and to the point, allowing him to use his screen presence to do the same things lots of dialogue would do.
The Audio
Presented in a Dolby Digital 5.1 surround format, the film sounds terrific. Taking full advantage of the format, the audio component of Broken Bridges comes through loud and clear. The music sequences in particular shine, as the format really lets them come through spectacularly.
The Video
Broken Bridges is presented in a widescreen format and has a terrific transfer. For a low budget film it has a transfer that compares to films with a much higher budget.
The Extras
“Alien” — Toby Keith’s Ford Truck Concert Video is a video used by Keith before his concerts. Running four minutes, it’s a moderately amusing video in which Keith fights off aliens trying to forcibly coax a free performance from him.
Muddin’ is a short feature about the off-road sequence that takes place. Running about three minutes, it’s a fluff piece for the most part as nothing of note is said.
The Making of Dixie is a five minute piece about how they designed the character Dixie’s offbeat clothing. Inspired by Haun, as well as punk rock from the 1970s, it’s a quick look at her wardrobe that doesn’t get too deep.
Meet the actors and their characters are lengthy profiles on each actor and their respective roles. Mainly functioning as EPK materials, there are some interesting tidbits buried throughout to keep the pieces from being complete fluff.
Military Base is a brief feature on the military personnel used in the film’s opening sequence.
