Broken Bridges Reviews

Small-town values help heal two lost souls in this cliched melodrama built around country-music superstar Randy Travis. Washed-up, alcoholic C&W singer Bo Price (Toby Keith) hauls his sorry carcass back to his hometown, Armour Springs, Tennessee, after his younger brother, Kyle, is killed in a military training accident. Miami TV personality Angela Delton (Kelly Preston), host of "People Power," is also on her way home — her brother Bobby died in the same accident, along with three other local boys. Both are coming home with baggage, but Angela has the heavier set. Bo has a history of running away from his problems. Angela, who left home at 17, pregnant and abandoned by her high-school sweetheart, is estranged from her father (Burt Reynolds) and has never so much as brought her 16-year-old daughter, aspiring musician Dixie Leigh (Lindsey Haun), home to meet her grandma (Tess Harper). It goes without saying that Dixie's father is Bo, which makes it exceptionally awkward when Angela learns that Bo is staying at her parents' small hotel. Over the course of a few emotionally fraught days, Dixie gets to know her dad while Bo and Angela mend some, yes, broken bridges. The film's many subplots include Dixie's run-in with a would-be date rapist, and Angela's reckoning with the two-faced "best friend" (Katie Finneran) who tried to steal Bo and set Angela's father's heart against her. The Country Music Channel's first foray into feature filmmaking is sickly sweet and thoroughly predictable, and woefully underuses veterans Harper and Reynolds, but it features some stirring performances, including BeBe Winans and Willie Nelson dueting on "The Uncloudy Day."