Stop-Loss (Kimberly Peirce, 2008)

8 years have passed since the release of director Kimberly Peirce’s last film, Boys Don’t Cry, and according to her co-writer Mark Richard there were “no less than 65 drafts” of the script for Stop-Loss since that time. So I ask you… how can it still feel like the writing was left so unpolished? The tone is too inconsistent, and characters seem to have the ability to appear anywhere within the United States almost overnight, on top of which a key part of the film is dedicated to a 1500-mile road trip to make a phone call? There’s a lot of problems and frustrations that come out of Stop-Loss, but the most frustrating thing is that it’s still a pretty good film in spite of them (and with some alterations it could have been a great one). The largely underrated Ryan Phillippe stars as Brandon King, a staff sergeant in the army that is finishing up his service. On the day he’s supposed to get out, the army ‘Stop-Losses’ him, effectively extending his service past the day he signed up for and forcing him to take another tour in Iraq. It’s at this point Brandon goes rogue, knocking out a few guards and making a B-line for D.C. to talk to a senator friend in the hopes of getting him out of this shameful “backdoor draft” loophole. This must have seemed like a great plot, filled with the best of intentions, but when you factor in the female road trip partner (his best friend’s girl, of course) it starts to feel like MTV jammed in the character and road trip in the hopes of spicing things up and making it more marketable. Luckily they made the right casting decisions because not only is Phillippe dependable in the lead role, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt makes every scene he’s in worthwhile. And Peirce fills the film with scattered moments of brilliance, mostly related to the soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder (scenes involving a front lawn trench and a firing squad of wedding gifts in particular). It’s these scenes you’re ultimately left wishing for more of… and what could have made Stop-Loss truly great.