Thank You For Your Service

Also checked out Thank You For Your Service, a new coming home from war movie. It’s about three guys rotating home from service in Iraq circa 2007. It focuses on how they try to get their lives back again while dealing with varying levels of PTSD. It’s an equal indictment against the VA as they run into red tape and long delays.
 
This is an earnest and well-acted film that doesn’t trade in high drama and hysterics. It might have been less honest if it were to ratchet up the melodrama but it would also have been a little more watchable. But I respect the film’s desire to play it real, to play it honest. Apparently the three men’s stories are inspired by actual events so credit to the film’s tone for honoring what must have really happened.
 
That said, the movie just runs a little long and does introduce, very late in the game, some crime elements that felt out of place. I wish it had ended sooner instead of both spinning its wheels and giving some slightly more Hollywood moments.
 
Overall, the main word to describe the movie IS earnest. It wants to be a very matter-of-fact depiction of how soldiers can come home from the war without visible injuries but who still suffer from their experience. It’s low-key good, it’s watchable, it’s emotional.
Score: 73