Jackie & Ryan

Jackie & Ryan is a gentle, heartfelt romance with appropriately understated performances, but the leads lack the necessary chemistry to make the story really sing. Director Ami Canaan Mann (daughter of acclaimed director Michael Mann) has a keen eye for the realistic way that two people become friends and then lovers. The leads in this story aren't starry-eyed adolescents desperate for each other or a stereotypical opposites-attract couple. They're different, yes, but they share a love of music and an appreciation of the present -- because who knows what tomorrow will bring.

Although it isn't a sizzling or dramatic affair, Jackie & Ryan does benefit from exciting bluegrass and folk music that's used both as live accompaniment and a soundtrack. And Mann doesn't shy away from the way that economic hardship can affect the poorer half of a doomed marriage or a modern-day hobo like Ryan, who's so minimalist that he carries all of his belongings on his back from place to place. There's a slightly unnecessary subplot involving Clea Duvall as the wife of Ryan's old friend, Cowboy, who's missing for most of the movie, but at least it shows that Ryan has emotional ties (if not physical ones) to the town. Ultimately, this is a quiet love story about how a handsome wanderer woos and steadies a woman via the wisdom he's gleaned from a life on the road.