SummaryRyan Brenner (Ben Barnes), a struggling musician, and Jackie Laurel (Katherine Heigl), a single mom battling to maintain custody of her daughter, defy their circumstances by coming together in a relationship that may change each others lives forever.
SummaryRyan Brenner (Ben Barnes), a struggling musician, and Jackie Laurel (Katherine Heigl), a single mom battling to maintain custody of her daughter, defy their circumstances by coming together in a relationship that may change each others lives forever.
This underdeveloped romance seems to be lacking an act, or two, or maybe even three. But it’s filled with such great music that the emotions are there regardless. Not unlike "Once," the movie itself feels like an excuse for the music. And as with "Once," that’s not always a bad thing.
The heartland drama Jackie & Ryan may prove too low-key and deliberately paced for less patient viewers, but distinct pleasures are to be had from this compactly shot film's easy rhythms, affecting tone and nicely modulated performances.
The cross-cutting duet it builds to, with two people singing the same song separated by hundreds of miles, is a nice musical moment, but just that: a moment. Ideally, even a low-key romantic drama should have more than one.
Heigl’s performance is more brittle, kind of her signature but also required in playing a woman going through a divorce. She has rarely given a bad performance, even if the films she picked were failures.