WHEN I WOULD LISTEN TO HER talk about her children, it was always apparent that she favored one child over the other. I could only imagine how many other people noticed the same thing. According to her, her son was a genius; she would tell everyone that he was going to be a medical researcher or doctor. There was a period when he received less than stellar grades, so she floated the idea he could become a lawyer. I thought one needed good grades to get into a good law school; but that fact did not faze her as she continued to brag about her son. Throughout this time, one might have wondered what was going on with her other children and that would have been a good question, because she rarely mentioned any of them. Her son, it appeared, was the only thing that mattered to her. I knew her daughter; but I must tell you, there were so few things her mother ever said about her. It was as if she were some kind of an embarrassment, though I could not figure out why. Granted, I thought she was a bit unfocused when it came to figuring out what career she wanted to go into, but it did not seem anything that unusual that any other high schooler was experiencing. WHAT I FOUND DISCONCERTING WAS THE fact she did not treat her children equally. It was obvious she favored her son over her daughter, in what I felt was a blatant way.  The sad thing about it was the fact I had experienced other parents doing the same thing, where it was easy to tell which child the parent favored the most. In my dealings with siblings of the same family, I always made it a point to treat each one equally. Gifts for each were of equal value, game times were always split equally between the siblings if we were not all playing the same game and taking one to a cultural event meant finding another event that would interest the other siblings. Why couldn’t a parent do the same thing? I remember this one couple who had 2 daughters and because they favored the eldest, the other one would act out just to annoy her parents. The awful thing about it was the younger child had a harder time finding her place in life, ending up with eating and trust issues. I found it incredibly sad. No matter the intentions, I feel a parent cannot forget the other children in the family. An example of this can be seen in this dramatic film based on a true story.      A FATHER WANTING TO DO SOMETHING for his son, who was a victim of bullying, decides to walk across America. This meant leaving the rest of his family behind. With Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter, Uncharted) as Joe Bell, Reid Miller (A Girl Named Jo-TV, Play by Play-TV) as Jadin Bell, Connie Britton (American Ultra, Bombshell) as Lola Lathrop, Maxwell Jenkins (Lost in Space-TV, A Definitely Maybe) as Joseph Bell and Gary Sinise (Forrest Gump, Apollo 13) as Sheriff Westin; I give Mark credit for trying a different role than his usual ones. He was okay but I felt his narrow band of acting abilities did not give that extra oomph the story needed. Though the script was mostly predictable, this film was still worth watching because of the performances from Reid and Connie. The actual story is an incredible one; in my opinion, I felt the writers could have gone deeper into the abusive events. Also, there were times in the script that I wondered if things happened that way or got twisted to provide the viewers with a couple of pulls on their heartstrings. The point the writers were making was valid which made this movie a decent viewing experience.

2 ½ stars