Movie Review: Stop-Loss

Does anything good ever come of war? I guess a cinephile's answer might be a few outstanding war movies. While "Stop-Loss" doesn't fall into the category of outstanding, it's an involving look at the latest wrinkle in war games. Beginning with a home movie recording of a routine check point in Iraq, the film unfortunately uses many of the standard issue elements of wartime stories: a small group of military buddies in jeopardy, a bittersweet homecoming with the young veterans almost immediately coming unglued as they try to adjust to civilian life, visits to injured comrades and parents of those who didn't make it back alive. The one difference here is stop-loss, a procedure by which soldiers who think they've completed their tour of duty are returned to service in Iraq. According to statistics shown before the end credits roll, this horrifying plan has been enforced on tens of thousands of soldiers since the Iraq war began.

Ryan Phillippe stars as Sgt. Brandon King, a decorated young soldier who returns to his hometown in Texas only to find he is the latest victim of stop-loss. Things are bad enough for King even before he's informed of his enforced second tour of duty. His hometown buddies Steve (Channing Tatum) and Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) are self destructing before his eyes as they drink, pick fights, punch girlfriends and seem incapable of leaving the war behind. King isn't immune to post traumatic stress himself. His constant nightmares and guilt about the loss of several troop members in an Iraqi ambush are causing him to hallucinate even while he struggles to keep his friends from going over the edge. Complicating things further is a strange love triangle that develops between King, Steve and Steve's fiancee (Abbie Cornish). Performances are uniformly excellent (pardon the pun). Philippe, Cornish and Tatum are particularly good, along with a wonderful supporting turn by Victor Rasuk as one of King's troop members who returns from the war blind and permanently maimed. Ciaran Hands and Linda Emond are fine in small roles as King's supportive parents and Gordon-Levitt does what he can with a rather difficult character.

Writer/director Kimberly Peirce ("Boys Don't Cry") does a pretty good job of showing King's struggle with his two options: return to Iraq despite his serious burnout and trauma or leave his home and loved ones by taking a new identity and crossing the border to Canada or Mexico. There aren't enough fresh elements to the story, however, to make this film truly stand out. The ending was provocative and not entirely expected, though I'm still trying to work out how I feel about it. As evidenced by my surprise listings below, this resolution was both a pleasant and an unpleasant surprise. Perhaps that's one of my favorite things about "Stop-Loss", since it's increasingly rare when a movie can be pondered long after leaving the theater.

Things to love about this movie: Strong performances; putting a human face on the terrible toll of war and the stop-loss procedure
Things to hate about this movie: Too much fighting and meltdown in too short a time for the returned veterans; all those Texas accents bug after awhile (must the hometown always be a small one that's south of Kentucky)
Pleasant surprises: The attraction between Phillippe and Cornish plays out in a realistic way; fun seeing wonderful actor Ciaran Hands playing a Texan (a good year for Hands so far with some new types of characters, including his turn in "Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day"); the film's ending (see also unpleasant surprises)
Unpleasant surprises: The film's ending (see also pleasant surprises)