Stop-Loss

About as unpopular as the war in Iraq are movies about the war in Iraq, but no matter: Director Kimberly Peirce (who made her mark with the intense, devastating "Boys Don't Cry") delves deep into this unsavory subject matter. She emerges victorious with a brave, probing look at the inner lives of soldiers. Bonus: Ryan Phillippe finally acts!

Review in a Hurry:  About as unpopular as the war in Iraq are movies about the war in Iraq, but no matter: Director Kimberly Peirce (who made her mark with the intense, devastating Boys Don't Cry) delves deep into this unsavory subject matter with Stop-Loss. She emerges victorious with a brave, probing look at the inner lives of soldiers. Bonus: Ryan Phillippe finally acts!

The Bigger Picture:  Sgt. Brandon King (Phillippe) and his squad return home to Brazos, Texas, as decorated heroes. Tortured by the violence they saw in the Middle East, the soldiers try to salve their inner wounds with alcohol. Lots of alcohol. (This is Texas, after all.) You can imagine this doesn't go so well. Brandon tries to save his comrades from their demons, supporting his best friend Steve Shriver (Channing Tatum), Steve's estranged fiancée, Michele (Abbie Cornish), and hapless soldier Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt).

Their stoic leader finally loses his own you-know-what when he is reenlisted, thanks to a sneaky loophole in military policy, the very day he was to be officially discharged. Brandon, like it or not, is now a victim of stop-loss.

His choices: Go AWOL, or go to war. Fueled by principle, Brandon hits the open road, and a few stops along the way, that help him make that fateful decision between duty and sanity.

Director Peirce knows better than to push the political issues. Her brutally honest camera follows men barely over drinking age, who have killed many and dodged bullets themselves. Yes, we need these soldiers to win the war. But can this war ever be won? Is it worth the lives of these men? The questions are whispered, not shouted, resonating through every scene.

The cast expertly performs this delicate dance between story and politics, even Phillippe. As an actor who conquered the blank stare to barely achieve actual emoting, he finally hits the bull's-eye with the role of Brandon, performing with remarkable range and passion. The actors spoke highly of Peirce as an "actor's director," so maybe Phillippe has her to thank for becoming the actor he always meant to be.

The 180—a Second Opinion:  The immediate displays of posttraumatic stress disorder by the recently returned soldiers—redolent with flashbacks, visions and outbursts of horrific violence—border on mockery of the affliction. The soldiers have instant sympathy from us at the outset, rendering such exaggeration unnecessary.