There are three things going on in this film: 1) Two medium-sized families converge in XXXL sized rural Texas. 2) One of the dads is suicidal and 3) There’s an escaped prisoner on the loose … somewhere. OK, got all that? Good. Now you can enjoy the second half of The Big Bend.
Cory and Melanie Price (Jason Butler Harner and Virginia Kull) have taken their family on “vacation.” All I know is when you drive more than a day to a place and the lone kid-friendly activity is “avoid cacti and snakes,” that’s not vacation, that’s torture. I have been there my friends. That is a circle of Hell.
Disneyworld it’s not, but this barren dogieland is the home of the Talbotts (Erica Ash and David Sullivan). I have no idea how the Talbotts survived without the ability to entertain their children, but now they’ve 
got more.
It takes a while for this film to get going. It’s not mind-numbing dull, but while we the distinct impression that plot points are comin’, they ain’t in a big hurry. Maybe they’re around The Big Bend. When the film finally does get going, it really gets going, so there’s that. In the meantime, however, there’s about 30-40 minutes of pictorial exposition. The reviewing problem I have is that everything worth a mention takes place in the spoiler zone. I don’t want to go there. I can tell you that an obsessed little girl finds a dead frog and decides to water it for days. Now wasn’t that fun?
The Big Bend was a fine film when it finally got to the point where things happened. It just took a while to get there. If you have patience, I think the film is worth seeing, but I’m not ready to howl at the moon about it for any reason.
Civilization they all had to flee
To Texas in a mini RV
Welcome to the Southwest
Get out, take a rest
Nothing here, but at least they’re free
Not Rated, 103 Minutes
Director: Brett Wagner
Writer: Brett Wagner
Genre: Movies not to show vacationing families
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Texans, I imagine
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Law enforcement
