Four stars. Rated R, for strong violent content, relentless profanity, sensuality, drug use and fleeting nudity
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.27.17
Some true-life stories wait
patiently for big-screen exposure.
Others beg for attention.
Repeatedly.
 |
| At first, being home is a happy relief for, from left, Solo (Beulah Koale), Will (Joe Cole) and Adam (Miles Teller). Sadly, all three soon will fall prey to mounting anxiety and other forms of severe psychological distress. |
Hollywood long has addressed the
challenges faced by returning military veterans, starting with 1946’s deeply
moving The Best Years of Our Lives,
an Academy Award-winning Best Picture made immediately in the wake of World War
II. Since then, each war — and every generation — have been acknowledged by
similarly earnest dramas: Coming Home,
Gardens of Stone, Born on the Fourth of July, In the Valley of Elah and many others.
To that cinematic honor role we
now add Thank You for Your Service,
director/scripter Jason Hall’s heartfelt adaptation of Pulitzer Prize-winning
Washington Post journalist David Finkel’s 2013 nonfiction book of the same
title.
Hall’s approach is
straightforward and bereft of typical war-film flash. The story has no nail-biting
tension, in the manner of The Hurt Locker
and Dunkirk, nor is this a senses-assaulting
bloodbath akin to Saving Private Ryan
and Hacksaw Ridge. The brief combat
sequences linger just long enough to make their point. Such choices are
consistent with Hall’s desire to tell an uncomplicated story about regular guys
who struggle to regain their souls, after leaving Iraq behind.
The story, set in 2008, focuses
on three members of the 2-16 Infantry Battalion in Baghdad, as they muster out
and return to their Stateside lives in and around Topeka, Kan.
Sgt. Adam Schumann (Miles
Teller), an instinctive “bomb sniffer,” has completed his third deployment and
— honoring a promise to his wife Saskia (Haley Bennett) —agrees to stay home
this time. Tausolo “Solo” Aeiti (Beulah Koale), in contrast, can’t wait to
re-up ... much to the consternation of his
wife, Alea (Keisha Castle-Hughes).
Will Waller (Joe Cole) has been
counting the days until he can rejoin and marry his fiancée, Tracey (Erin
Darke).
Schumann and Aeiti are actual
individuals who figured prominently in Finkel’s book. Waller is a construct,
inserted to convey one of the many other “homeward bound” sagas that Finkel
gleaned during his extensive research and numerous interviews.
