I honestly don't know how to feel about this movie.  I've been mulling it over in my head, trying to think of a way to review it without giving everything away and just discussing it here, and I know it's going to be hard not to do that, but I have to try.  Why?

Because I come from a military family, and I've never before seen a movie that captured what the war experience is like for us.  The movie "Black Hawk Down" came closest, and that was all about the soldiers and it didn't even mention the families, and every movie that tries to mention how 'war is hell on the home front too' ends up sinking into sentimentality and there's no trace of the raw, real emotion that I see in this movie.  For that reason alone people should see it.

The movie starts out in Iraq, with soldiers camped out, talking and laughing (and some of them showing pictures of family, which as we all know usually leads to death in war movies, but luckily this movie isn't interested in such cliché trappings) when suddenly something happens, and the Sergeant in command has to make a decision, and of course it's the wrong decision (because we can't highlight times when he makes the right  decision... that would just be boring... and I'm of the mind that in war, there ARE no right decisions) and people get injured and killed, and it's painful and difficult for him.  Just like in real life.  But all that is behind him now, right?  He's going home with his fellow soldiers, brothers and friends, and everything is going to be ok now, right?

Ryan Philippe sums it up best when his character is asked to give a speech at a "Welcome Home" parade and he stumbles on awkwardly for a few minutes about how he doesn't know what to say, until someone else takes over the microphone and sets the crowd cheering with the equivalent of "We're number one!"  To be quite honest with you, while I have nothing against Ryan Philippe, I would never have thought he'd be capable of giving the performance he gives here.  It's nuanced and complex and I was in awe... I didn't know he had it in him. To get back to the story though, while everything is awkward and weird and stressful, the troops are all glad to be hoe and Philippe's character Brandon is cheerfully filling out paperwork for his discharge of duties when he finds out he's to be "Stop-Lossed."  That's the thing the army does when there aren't enough soldiers available and the country is considered to be in a time of war, the army takes soldiers who are finished with their tours of duty (in other words, they've finished their contracts) and ships them back overseas. Brandon is furious about this and when things don't go so well with his objection to this event, he flees the base and is suddenly AWOL. What follows is a depressing journey where Brandon must decide what to do.

Whatever you think about Brandon's final decision, know that this movie gives a glimpse into the life of a soldier's family and friends that few films even attempt.  People say that it has flaws, but I didn't really see that when I watched it, I just saw a lot of depressing reality and nagging questions and that rang true to me.