*This post contains spoilers**
Dr. Rose Cotter (Sosie Bacon) is cursed. She needs help, fast. Can she rely on her sister, Holly (Gillian Zinser)? Too much tension, bad blood, and bitterness on Rose’s side. And you can put the final nail in the coffin for the duo of two sisters working together after Holly’s son, Jackson (Matthew Lamb) receives the gory surprise of Rose’s dead cat, Mustache in a box for his birthday present.
Rose’s fiancé, Trevor (Jessie T. Usher)? He doesn’t believe Rose’s stories about “ghosts,” and he’s quick to remind Rose about the realistic possibility of suffering through a psychotic episode, and a history of mental illness in the family going all the way back to Rose’s mother.
What about Rose’s ex-boyfriend, Joel (Kyle Gallner)? Joel steps in and steps up, when everyone else in Rose’s circle shuns her, or questions her sanity. And luckily for Rose, Joel is also a detective!
You can see Joel is hesitant to believe Rose’s story about a curse, but he also realizes Rose is clearly struggling. She’s losing it, so Joel does anything he can do to help. Joel reluctantly allows Rose to look at graphic crime scene photos, surveillance footage showing a curse related death at a gas station, and Joel sets up a meeting with Robert Talley (Rob Morgan), a former victim of the curse, so Rose can find the answers she’s looking for.
Is there a chance Joel was hoping for a second shot at a relationship with Rose? Remember, Joel returned to the hospital to check on Rose, and he wasn’t interested in Nurse Wanda’s (Ura Yoana Sanchez) direct advances. Joel cared about Rose. He realized she needed help, someone to lean on, and he never turned his back on her.
Rose believed she finally defeated The Monstrosity. She needed to feel safe, and Joel’s apartment was her first stop, after a long car ride. Why? Because Rose trusted Joel. But the reunion with Joel turned out to be another one of the entity’s clever tricks. Rose, after putting up a tough fight, finally cracked. She needed Joel, and the entity used her emotions against her one last time, while Joel (as the entity) laughed and slowly flashed a devious smile.
Fast forward to Smile 2, and Joel is a complete mess. The curse drains its current target. You can see the desperation and exhaustion on Joel’s face during the opening shot of the movie. He’s struggling to escape the curse, so Joel comes up with a plan to pass the curse to a gang of drug dealers.
It’s strange, but you have to admire Joel trying to hold on to some integrity during his final moments. Joel was desperate. He witnessed first hand what happened to Rose, dumping gasoline on herself and lighting the match to commit suicide. But Joel wanted to make sure he found the worst of the worst, so he wouldn’t feel bad about passing the curse. Find a bunch of lowlifes, who deserve a death sentence. Make sure they’re harshly punished for their crimes, and maybe Joel will have a shot at a normal life, when it’s over. Sounds simple enough, right?
Of course, Joel’s plan horribly backfires. He unknowingly passes the curse to a petrified Lewis Fregoli (Lukas Gage), a small-time drug dealer, who obviously just stopped by to pick up his merchandise. To make matters worse, Joel is killed trying to escape a shootout, when a pick-up truck runs him over.
Kyle Gallner easily delivers one of the best performances in both Smile films. Playing a somewhat timid, shy, and awkward guy, Gallner’s sympathetic performance adds another emotional layer to Smile and Smile 2. Also, Joel adds a few good laughs to the original Smile film, a movie that’s heavy on the drama and a handful of serious moments.
Through a weird twist of fate, Joel reconnected with his ex-girlfriend under some bizarre circumstances. He could’ve walked away after Rose told him about the curse. Rose didn’t have anyone else to turn to. But Joel was willing to stand by her side, no matter how ludicrous the story of a curse that causes people to smile and kill themselves sounded.
Joel paid the ultimate price in the end. Assuming Joel was just living quietly and peacefully, without too much stress, helping Rose cost him his life. The stunned and horrified look on Gallner’s face during Smile’s finale, when Rose’s body is engulfed in flames is just perfect. It’s a startling confirmation for Joel, because he realizes Rose was always telling the truth.
Did Joel have any regrets about helping Rose? Yeah, you could say Joel’s response would be a resounding no, if he had to go back and do it all over again, knowing what’s coming once the curse grabs a hold of you. Or, you could lean in the direction for Joel and Rose being more prepared to fight together, to find a way to save themselves, possibly preventing the curse and The Monstrosity from claiming another victim. Joel and Rose clearly trusted each other, and that’s the kind of bond you’re going to need to stop a curse that feeds off of emotional pain and a dark past.
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