Review: 'Our Wild Hearts', Directed by Ricky Schroder

We've all seen nepotism used in Hollywood on several occasions, most recently with Will Smith’s flop, After Earth, and Ricky Schroder uses it this time around in order to give his daughter Cambrie a chance to star in her own movie without the pressures from the rest of Hollywood. Originally appearing on the Hallmark Channel in March, Our Wild Hearts sees the entire Schroder family make an appearance in the film in some capacity.

Willow Johnson (Cambrie Schroder) is the stereotypical rich Malibu teenager. She’s spoiled in all the ways that most people aren't.  She starts a fight with her mom Katie (Angela Lindvall) in order to find out who her father is and reluctantly her mom lets her know that her dad’s name is Jack and he’s a cowboy in Nevada.

 Jack’s ranch is going south and he’s short of money. A competition between Jack and Grizz (Martine Kove) to catch and tame a wild stallion named Bravo is set up and takes up a lot of the film. Willow sets out to meet her father and the meeting is less than eventful. She bluntly tells him who she is and the meeting is less than emotional on both sides of the spectrum. Willow falls for Bravo and sets out to keep him free.

Cambrie Schroder’s acting is decent enough for her first movie, though it takes a while for her to really embody her role. The voice-overs in the beginning and end of the films are painful, but she does try. She has potential if possibly given the right material. The story doesn’t help her in the least, however. Though she’s still not yet able to carry an entire movie on her own, Cambrie does have screen presence, which is more than one can say about some other young actors.

Ricky Schroder, who writes, directs, and stars in this film, looks like he hasn't aged at all. His boyish features almost make it hard to believe that he has a fifteen year old daughter. But, ultimately, the problem with Schroder's film is that the film is less about bonding father and daughter and is more about the relationship between Cambrie and the horse.

The story splits itself into two halves. One is the beginning where the important part is finding Willow’s father. The other half is building the relationship between Willow and Bravo. The horse aspect takes over the film and before you know it, the father/daughter relationship is pretty much thrown out the window. The plot line about Willow wanting to find her  father is simply the catalyst that gets her to the ranch and to Bravo. 

It’s easy to write off Our Wild Hearts as a melodramatic fanfare, but unfortunately that’s mostly what it is. Not to say that it doesn’t have any good moments, but the film in general is a very throw-away hour and a half of your life. The plot is simple enough, but the first twenty minutes or so are almost cringe worthy and the characters are extremely stereotypical and have no real substance. A typically simplistic and overly cheesy TV movie that doesn't try to rise above what it is.