Stop-Loss wins battle, loses war

In theaters Wednesday: Tropic Thunder
In theaters Friday: Henry Poole Is Here, Mirrors, Vicky Christina Barcelona, Star Wars: The Clone Wars

New on DVD: Smart People

Now on DVD, Iraq War drama Stop-Loss is a mixed bag for sure, but Kimberly Peirce’s first film since winning an Oscar with Boys Don’t Cry in 1999, is most notable for its missed opportunities. The premise is simple: After the deaths of a few good men, a Marines sergeant is disillusioned with the Iraq War and just wants to return to normalcy at home in Texas when his contract is up. But like thousands of U.S. servicemen and women in the past few years, he is stop-lossed. That is, the government breaks its contract with him and orders him back for another year of service in Iraq. Instead of following orders he goes AWOL, and to top it off, he runs from the law with his best friend’s gal.

It is a timely and worthwhile subject. Unfortunately somewhere along the way Peirce’s execution falls flat. For one thing, she includes too many sections of handycam-style flashbacks to the warzone that scream MTV — ironically, the production house that produced this picture. But with her pedigree, Peirce should have known those would needlessly jerk the viewer out of the present drama. And as G.I. Joe taught me well, knowing is half the battle.

Ryan Phillippe’s performance as Sgt. Brandon King is solid, and he uses the conflicted role to show more range than he ever has as an actor. The scene when he confronts his commanding officer about being stop-lossed is an intense stare down punctuated with engaging dialogue, and it’s well-earned payoff from the rising tension of the first act. But then tones shift suddenly, too, and the characters’ motivations get a little muddy. Even Phillippe’s emotional visit to a wounded friend in the V.A. hospital, and fellow veteran Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s heart-rending meltdown can’t lift the rest of the film from mediocrity. Relative newcomer Abbie Cornish, who tabloid hounds may recognize as the Aussie that came between Phillippe and his Baton Rouge-born ex-wife Reese Witherspoon, holds her own but isn’t given an awful lot to do except shoot tequila and try to keep these roughnecks on the rails. The problem is her onscreen fiancé Channing Tatum still belongs nowhere other than the CW. None of his dialogue was believable, and I’m almost positive much of Phillipe’s on-screen frustration is from struggling to act with him and had nothing to do with his character’s forced redeployment.

As much as I wanted Stop-Loss to be my generation’s great war movie, it just isn’t. Still, if you like some of the great post-war dramas of the 1980s like Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July or Francis Ford Coppola’s Gardens of Stone, you should check it out.

And here’s the brand new trailer for Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. It looks like a quirky, Gen Y blend of Before Sunset and Juno. It even stars Juno and Superbad vet Michael Cera in the exact role you’ve seen him in before: the likeable semi-nerd with a big heart. As in Juno, Cera here plays a musician, Nick, but this time he’s pulled into an instant relationship when Norah, a stranger, drafts him as her boyfriend for five minutes to make an ex jealous. But the quick burn turns into an all-nighter that romps like Superbad across the city and through a menagerie of awkward characters and even more awkward situations.