Row Your Boat 1999

Jon Bon Jovi plays Jamey Meadows, a man recently released from prison who ends up homeless on the brutal streets of New York City. To scrape by, he takes a modest job as a door-to-door census taker for the government. His brother, William Forsythe who plays Gil Meadows, is a petty criminal who sees this new job as a way to gain inside information for future burglaries. He presses Meadows with offers, bribes, and pressure to join the gang, but Meadows resists, remembering that it was helping his brother that sent him to jail and choosing loyalty over quick money.

On the census rounds, Meadows interviews Bai Ling as Chun Hua, a young Chinese woman married to a much older businessman, who has a baby boy from an earlier liaison. Meadows is drawn to her warmth and begins a gentle romance, even teaching her colloquial New York English and sharing moments of song as they together sing the nursery rhyme that gives the film its title. He even pretends his brother’s apartment is his own, slipping into a rough living situation to keep her in his life, while their growing bond navigates both hope and risk.

Things take a darker turn when the gang breaks into Chun Hua’s home, finds nothing of value, and kidnaps the baby for ransom. The gang, including Joseph Michael Marmo as Joey / Gangster, presses Meadows to cooperate, but he acts to protect the infant and ends up abducting the baby himself, fleeing and stealing a rowboat to cross the Hudson toward Chun Hua. The pursuit heats up as Meadows fights to outpace his pursuers.

Tragically, Meadows is shot in the back by his own brother while shielding the baby, and dies before the coast guard can reach him. The brother is hailed as a hero for foiling the kidnapping, while Chun Hua and the baby return to China, with the truth behind the infant’s fate known only to her.