Tropic Sprockets / Mending the Line

By Ian Brockway

“Mending the Line” by director Joshua Caldwell is a bit too predictable in its treatment, but it is buoyed by solid performances from its actors, and a spectacular Montana landscape. [Showtimes and trailer at Tropiccinema.com.]

Colter (Sinqua Walls) is a Marine with PTSD who is plagued by nightmares. He wants to get on with life and resume his military status, but Dr. Burke (Patricia Heaton) won’t hear of it, as he is not medically healthy. She prescribes a course in flyfishing for him. It’s headed by Vietnam veteran Ike Fletcher (Brian Cox of Succession), who himself has heart problems.

Ike is a curmudgeon, none too thrilled to have Colter as a student given his drinking, but reluctantly takes him on, assigning stocking and reading for a first step at the local fishing supply store.

At the library, Colter meets the attractive and cheerful librarian, Lucy (Perry Mattfeld) who loves to read to VA patients, including Ike. Lucy suggests The Sun Also Rises to Colter even though the novel has little to do with fishing. 

As one can expect, Colter asks Lucy out for dinner. Lucy reluctantly consents. 

Colter develops a rapport with Ike, their shared military experience is the glue that binds them. Colter learns to appreciate the meditative calm of fly fishing. The tracing of fishing line upon the water is a kind of calligraphy. He also learns the joy of altruism, of returning the fish back to its aquatic home.

On a second date, a shaky Colter has a flashback and is nearly violent. Seconds later, Ike has an emotional relapse because his estranged son is refusing his calls. Then, overwhelmed by the loss of her fiancé, Lucy loses her temper with her near mother-in law (Irene Bedard). This medley of melodrama makes the tangible poignance of injury and healing too much like television and the story loses some of its momentum. 

Despite these Hallmark Channel passages and a swelling score, the three actors Walls, Cox, and Mattfeld maintain a natural ease, and the painterly sweeps of landscape are wondrously rendered by cinematographer Eve Cohen. The fish appear to wink at the hook, and this makes sense too, because they are ultimately released back into the wild.

While the drama is a bit syrupy, “Mending the Line” goes over easy, without any handwringing. The human actions depicted are predictable, but they are also natural and do have genuine basis in struggle. By highlighting Montana’s natural tapestry, the film underscores the ability of nature to release our personal trauma.

Write Ian at [email protected]

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