Set in the small town of Potter Creek, “Roped” is a story of a cowboy and the councilman’s daughter who meet when a rodeo comes into the progressive town. While this love story sounds intriguing, it reminds viewers of a cult classic American film of a small town that banned dancing until one boy came in and fell in love with the Reverend’s daughter, and depending on your opinion of “Footloose,” may be cringe worthy. 

If you enjoyed “Footloose,” you may find this film cringey or difficult to watch as the screenplay tries to develop a strong romance between a daddy’s girl and a bad boy cowboy while the main actress dresses like a Justice model and the cowboy is overly obsessed with a horse. 

“Roped” is like “Footloose” and a Hallmark movie had a baby. The writing is cheesy and distracts from the plot of the film and the producers tried to recreate something that already exists so perfectly. The characters were not believable, Tracy (Lorynn York) was supposed to be daddy’s little girl, but she dropped the act any time the councilman left the room and most of the time for no reason. Then we have the best friend, Britney, who starts off completely rebellious and tries to get Tracy to join her; however, as soon as Tracy begins hanging out with Colton (Josh Swickard), Britney (Javicia Leslie) is no longer her bestie. Do not even get me started on Colton, he is the perfect image of a cowboy, but his relationship with his horse is a little weird; most of his lines are strictly about his horse. Also for some reason he does not get a lot of respect from his fellow cowboys but is one of the most talented ones there. The writer, John Ducey, included extra information that did not develop the plot, instead it made it more strange and kind of amusing. 

Also, the costume situation makes it so much worse. Instead of making the main character look like she lived in a small town, it looks like the designer, Elizabeth Mintree-Jett, took all the trends that existed when the movie was being filmed and put them on one character. These outfit choices made her seem way too young and annoying to be hanging around high school kids and sneaking off to visit her rodeo boyfriend. It made the whole thing uncomfortable because she always acted so much younger than him. Colton’s style gave off more modern, pop country singer vibes than it did, a boy who grew up on a ranch his whole life with his only friend being a horse vibes. The dialogue and the costume choices and the actual goals of the characters did not line up well.

Although, with all of these distractors, the plot of the film is easy to follow, the councilman and main characters dad, is very conscious of animal cruelty. He has his entire family avoid eating meat and when the rodeo comes to town, he quickly convinces the townspeople to boycott. He is stubborn about his views, refusing to listen to his daughter, Tracy, who is falling head over heels for Colton, the rodeo cowboy. During this daddy-daughter fight, Tracy’s brother Luke, also bonds with Colton about his love of horses. In the end, it is up to the cowboys to save the rodeo and the councilman to change his views. 

“Roped” is just a classic Netflix original,  a cringey love story with an overbearing parent and a large conflict. It is basic entertainment, maybe you will like the entire movie. Or you will think the distractions make the movie bad, but that is why it is so entertaining because of how unrealistic it is. Just know that when you sit down to watch this movie for an hour and thirty minutes of your life, it is not the Nicholas Sparks novel it portrays on the cover; however, it can and will still entertain you.