A trio of excellent performances help lift the meandering storyline of
Cowboys into something entirely watchable.
Steve Zahn is Troy the troubled father of Joe, (Sasha Knight) an 11 year old girl
who identifies as being a boy. Whilst Troy accepts his daughter’s choices
the same can’t be said for his ex-wife and the child’s mother Sally
(Jillian Bell). Blaming Troy for the way her daughter feels, “you fill her
head with cowboy stories” she tells Troy, Sally blinds herself to her
daughters inner feelings by trying to turn her into something she doesn’t
want to be, dresses aren’t the clothes of choice for Joe, much to her
mother’s annoyance.
Bonding more with her accepting father the pair, after Joe has a bust up
with her mother, head off into the wilderness of Montana with the aim of
making it across the border into Canada. Needless to say things don’t go so
well, Troy loses his bipolar medication and things start to go downhill for
the fugitive pair who are now being hunted by the local police after Sally
reports that her daughter has been kidnapped by Troy.
As the pair journey across the wilderness the story is told in flashback
allowing us to find out more and more about the family’s past.
Cowboys is an enjoyable story which is partly let down by a rather
unconvincing final act, however take away that and you're left with a moving
and touching story that at only 85 minutes doesn’t outstay its welcome. .
