Serviceable melodrama ‘Last Rodeo’ saved by the bull riding
“The Last Rodeo” — 3 stars
Full disclosure: “The Last Rodeo,” a contemporary family drama set in the world of Professional Bull Riders, earned at least half a star from this reviewer for name-checking Bodacious, a legendary 1,900-pound competitor that challenged (and severely injured) the best riders on the circuit in the 1990s. As a character says in this homage to a thrilling, occasionally bone-crushing sport, “What a bull.”
The vicarious tension and excitement of the PBR league is the best part of “The Last Rodeo,” which stars Neal McDonough as Joe Wainwright, a retired rider who decides to return for one last ride to pay for lifesaving surgery for an ailing loved one. Director Jon Avnet, who co-wrote the script with McDonough, films the bull-riding sequences with impressive immediacy, using everything from GoPro to slo-mo to capture what it’s like to sit atop a bucking hulk of sinew and muscle for the longest eight seconds of one’s life. PBR fans will be doubly gratified by the cameo appearances of some popular present-day PBR stars, including Daylon Swearingen, Ezekiel Mitchell, Dakota Lewis and Eli Vastbinder.
It takes around 45 minutes for “The Last Rodeo” to get to Tulsa, where Joe intends to enter the PBR Legends Championship; before that, the movie engages in setting up the stakes with ploddingly familiar contours. As mannered and obvious as the dialogue can be, especially when characters are delivering expository speeches about what happened several years ago, it’s helped considerably by some warm, appealing performances. Christopher McDonald brings a welcome glint of mischief as an always-hustling PBR official who sees a commercial payday in the novelty of an old geezer returning to the chute; Sarah Jones is admirably understated as Joe’s daughter Sally, delivering a convincingly brisk portrayal of a single mother with no time for nonsense.
McDonough, best known for his recent appearance in “Tulsa King,” possesses the blue-eyed, square-jawed handsomeness of a classic movie cowboy; here, he channels Clint Eastwood as the ultimate Quiet Man With a Past whose emotional reserve breaks only when he’s punching a Ford F-350 in taciturn frustration. The stoicism feels both forced and dramatically inert until he reconnects with Charlie, his best friend and former bullfighter (think of a corner man in a boxing ring), to bring him along on the adventure. Played with enormous heart and humor by Mykelti Williamson, Charlie injects much-needed brio into a story that, without him, threatens to sink into stale, you-must-pay-the-rent histrionics.
“The Last Rodeo” is a melodrama and, like all melodramas, depends on a recognizable formula to please the fans: in this case, all the sentimentalism and contrivances inherent to the form, including the usual setbacks — fatal illnesses, maybe-crippling injuries, bar fights, a bout of heavy weather — and third-act revelations. The pacing, especially in the first hour, can be tediously starchy. But the film is disarming in its forthright sincerity, and as long as it’s in the pavilion where raging bulls turn men into human yard darts, it’s viscerally effective. “The Last Rodeo” may not be bodacious, but it’s a satisfying ride.
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In theaters. Rated PG for thematic elements, mild profanity and violence. 118 minutes.