Buy It Now: Stop-Loss

Dir. Kimberly Peirce

Rating: 5.7  |  0 User Reviews  |  Send to Friend

By Piers Marchant

While it's true that trailers for films are notoriously untrustworthy, you would have to think long and hard before coming up with a more misleading piece of propaganda than what the studio minds at MTV films came up with for Kimberly Peirce's follow-up to Boys Don't Cry. Instead of a patriotic affirmation of the good work our boys are doing abroad, as the trailer would suggest, the film attempts for a searingly critical piece of work, questioning the sense of sending young men and women back into a conflict they had no reason to be involved in the first place. The concept of stop-loss, whereby, through a president's order, soldiers can be forced to re-up for an additional tour of duty and be sent back to the lines, weighs heaviest on Brandon King (Ryan Phillippe), a Sergeant who saw enough of the war and its pointlessness the first time around. The trouble is, his only other option is go on the lam, leaving behind most of his Army team, including his best friend, Steve (Channing Tatum), and their buddy, Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), both of whom are a mess outside of combat. The film touches on a good many things, including the hellishness of post-stress disorder and, through a badly wounded comrade (Victor Rasuk), the misery of surviving a war anything but physically intact. Clearly, Peirce wants the onus of the film to be about the raw deal soldiers are receiving from the government they were sworn to protect. Roger that, but the problem is the melodrama begins to take over about two-thirds of the way through, and, worse, the film begins to meander as Brandon tries to make a decision about his future. Phillippe is outstanding, the heart and soul of the film, and Gordon-Levitt does his usual solid turn, but neither one is enough to really carry the film to the emotionally resonant level for which Peirce is shooting. Hard to tell if this was her botch job or whether or not the studio took final cut away from her and softened the tone substantially, but whatever the case, much like the war it depicts, it feels like a blown opportunity to truly do some good.

The disc also has an assortment of bonus features, including director commentaries, deleted scenes, and a mini-doc about the boot camp experience.

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