Thank You For Your Service Review

R: for strong violent content, language throughout, some sexuality, drug material and brief nudity

Universal Pictures, Dreamworks Pictures, Reliance Entertainment

1 Hr and 49 Minutes

Directed/Written By Jason Hall

Cast: Miles Teller, Haley Bennett, Amy Schumer, Joe Cole, Beulah Koale, Scott Haze, Keisha Castle-Hughes, Brad Beyer, Omar Dorsey, Jayson Warner Smith

INTRO: Well every year or so we get a military drama just in time for Oscar season. In 2013, we had Lone Survivor which was good. In 2014, we had American Sniper which I thought wasn’t all that great. And now in 2017, Jason Hall (the Academy Award-nominated screenwriter of ‘American Sniper’) makes his directorial debut with ‘Thank You For Your Service,’ based on the book of the same name. Will Hall’s film be on the same level of Eastwood’s ‘American Sniper’ or will this just be another military drama?

"Thank You for Your Service" follows a group of U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq who struggles to integrate back into the family and civilian life, while living with the memory of a war that threatens to destroy them long after they've left the battlefield.

THE GOOD

CHOOSE YOUR WAR HERO

One of the first things that need to be taken into account before you watch this movie is to know the fact that "Thank You For Your Service" is not a military war movie but a post-war drama.  The only scenes of actual missionary procedural comes in at both the beginning and end of the movie and its not really that long. Its only utilized as a mean of piecing together the closure Teller’s character Schumann must find himself. With this being a drama, the film primarily focuses on these two war veterans who have been newly discharged. You have a Latino veteran, Solo Aieti who desperately wants to go back into the battlefield despite him having a loving wife. And you have Adam Schumann who has a wife and kids but missed so much that he has trouble reconnecting with them primarily due to a troubling traumatic event that begins to haunt him right when he gets back home. 

What I like about this movie is the separation of stories that come from the perspective of these two guys and how it all connects together. The film doesn't disjointly show these characters lives for it begins with them and consistently having them hanging out with each other. Not only are they war heroes but you get the sense of them being close friends as well that they have the closeness of brotherhood. It really engages you twenty minutes in once one of their close friends bites the bullet and from that moment the tone of the movie shifts from something that would seem playful and lighthearted into something dark and depressing. 

These guys seem okay at first, but once the second act kicks in and the longer the film goes on, the layers of these guys start to unfold as it shows that the events that Schumann and Aieti are going through are much more severe than what it seems to be on the surface.  Soon after one character who you would think would play a huge part in the film goes, you hope to God they make it alive before the credits roll before they put a bullet in their heads. 

Halloween is coming, and this movie is a goddamn horror film for veterans everywhere. It's not as triggering as "Hacksaw Ridge," but if you are a veteran who has been recently discharged or on a break to spend time with family, don’t see this movie. This movie will emotionally break you.

What makes me favor this more than "American Sniper" is how Hall puts the emotional complexity of his characters in the foreground as you try to delve into the mindset of Schumann and Aieti as they must overcome their personal obstacles that they’re triggered by. With this, you want to see these two get better and cured of the this rut their brains are stuck in. In "American Sniper" I never got the urgency for Bradley Cooper’s Chris Kyle to reconnect with his family because the movie would continuously shift back and forth from Kyle being at home and war before we get any sense of human character with him. Here, you get three-dimensional personalities for you to resonate towards especially since the primary setting all takes place in their state of Kansas.

There is a depressing yet complicated theme of adjustment and at what cost does it take to be a hero. I just recently saw a film where the filmmaker visually portrays the central character’s PTSD in an artistic form, but Hall makes it actually quite traumatizing and psychologically tragic. He does a great job depicting the harsh realities of men attempting to adjust back to their personal life long after their time in the call of duty is over.

SERVICEABLE PERFORMANCES

Performance wise everyone gives serviceable performances (no pun intended) as everyone is equally good. No actor really stands out more than the other. It's more of an ensemble film opposed to the just one actor pulling their weight and carrying a story. It is Miles Teller who is the face of the movie’s marketing, but you have other actors who perform on the same level as him. For God’s sake, Amy Schumer is in this film as a widow, and even her performance puts you on the verge of tears. Ever since "Whiplash" Miles Teller has been working his ass off to get that Oscar. That Teller boy really wants to deliver that Oscar-worthy performance to earn him at least a nomination. Though that is not here, he does deliver a good one. If Teller got a nomination, cool. He does have several “for your consideration” moments that'll have you in shambles, but I wouldn't bet money on it.

A performance that did astound me though opposed to everyone else was newcomer Beulah Koale as Solo Aieti. With Koale, he gives a Cuba Gooding Jr. like performance where he is charismatic but when its time to get serious he can become threatening and unstable. There is a sequence where he turns into a superhuman as he goes into a fit of rage due to him playing  "Call of Duty," which triggers his PTSD. He starts breaking walls and screaming while his pregnant wife runs and hides. Out of everything, that is the most intense sequence the film has to offer.

THE BAD

WHEN DID THIS TURN TO A GANGSTER FLICK?

Halfway through the film, Aieti’s storyline shifts gears into something else and for some estranged reason, it became a gangster movie. Oh yeah, for a good 30 minutes, "Thank You For Your Service" turns into "Boyz in the Hood." When the gangster storyline is introduced, it provides a great meaning at first. But as it goes on, the movie just begins to follow every generic trope of a gangster movie where a guy is supposed to deliver a package but doesn’t due to his other priories, and then he’s on the run because he messed up so bad. It just becomes more of a mess as that entire storyline is thought out where it doesn’t even have an organic resolution. It’s just dropped right after due to the fact that by at that point, the film was beginning to wrap itself up. It kind of bothered me that this is given to the Spanish guy where he is the one who is addicted to drugs and attends dogfights. 

Speaking of which, there is a brutal dogfighting sequence (no not the one involving airplanes) that occurs in the movie, and it's tough to sit through. It's not extensive, but it does catch you off guard with how far Hall goes with it.

LAST STATEMENT

Psychologically haunting and  emotionally thoughtful, "Thank You For Your Service" provides an a well written and well-performed outlook on the lives of discharged soldiers even though it struggles to find its footing with a balanced narrative at times.

Rating: 3.5/5 | 74%

Super Scene: Get on the bus.