BEFORE: It's the end of the Steve Carell chain, well, I guess except for "Beautiful Boy", which I didn't include, because that's my new link to "Call Me By Your Name", and I'm not ready for that one yet, plus it doesn't get me to where I need to be on February 1. So I'll save that one for later, it's more of a Father's Day-type film anyway, and we've had several films in the past year on that sort of topic, where a teen boy deals with drug addiction, or comes back from rehab or gay-conversion therapy. Seriously, there was a total glut of those films on the market last year, but since both Father's Day and Gay Pride Month coincide in June, I think my path is pretty clear.
Fourth film in a row with Steve Carell, and third in a row watched on an Academy screener - this one's from 2017, though, and it hasn't hit premium cable yet, but it is available on Amazon Prime. Now, my wife has an Amazon Prime account, but I can't get Amazon movies to work on my computer, something about a Silverlight plug-in, not my fault, though - so I either have to bug my wife to let me watch something via her Amazon account, or borrow the screener from the office. Either way, I'm not paying - but I do promise to feel guilty about that, OK?
THE PLOT: Thirty years after they served together in Vietnam, former Navy Corpsman Larry "Doc" Shepherd reunites with his old buddies, former Marines Sal Nealon and Rev. Richard Mueller, to bury his son, a young Marine killed in the Iraq War.
AFTER: Yeah, some heavy subject matter tonight - it's funny, I spent a few days in the 2nd week of January dealing with films about war, like "13 Hours" and "12 Strong" and "Seal Team Six", and now it seems in the latter part of the month that I'm dealing with the aftermath, like aging veterans and dying soldiers and PTSD. Thematically it works, I just sort of wish I'd scheduled this for Veterans Day or Memorial or Armed Forces Day - umm, whenever that is. (May 19 this year, I had to look it up.) Plus I watched A.A. Milne recovering from World War I in "Goodbye Christopher Robin" and Dick Cheney sending troops off to Gulf Wars 1 AND 2 in "Vice".
I've never served in the military, so I'm not the best judge of whether a film is authentic in its portrayal of veterans, or what it's like to BE a veteran of Vietnam or either Gulf War. But I figure it's probably a complicated, sensitive subject, and it at least gets treated like one here in this film. The three lead characters are still both guided and haunted by their actions 30 years ago - the story is set in 2003, which allows for the tie in to the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts, which began in late 2001. So at the same time Larry Shepherd contacts two men he knew during the war, their reunion is happy at first, until he reveals the reason that he needs support and companionship at this time, his son's body is being shipped home from Iraq.
At first he just needs a ride to Arlington, after traveling all the way down from New Hampshire, presumably by bus or something, to Sal's bar in Norfolk, VA. Together they drive to find the third member of this impromptu group, who's now a preacher in a nearby congregation. Confusion reigns when they arrive at Arlington Cemetery, only to realize that the body's being transported to Dover Air Force Base, and they're not even in the right state. The three men decide (eventually) to overcome their differences, and work together to get the body away from the military, so it can instead be driven up to New Hampshire for a burial closer to home.
This may be the other reason for setting the story in 2003, because much of the confusion and many of the problems they encounter along the way could have easily been resolved with the use of cell phones. But this seems like a NITPICK POINT at first, because we did have cell phones (not smart phones, though) in 2003. But then again, maybe it's not an N.P. because these guys are in their 50's or 60's, so maybe they wouldn't have had them. Still, it seems a little odd that they don't know much about these new-fangled devices, so I don't know - would a preacher in his 50's in 2003 have been so clueless about cell phones?
After more confusion resulting from renting a truck (Note: one shouldn't make jokes about Arab culture or terrorists when renting a van or truck in 2003...) they end up with the body on an Amtrak train, with a one-man military escort. (I thought maybe this was another mistake, depicting an Amtrak Acela express train in 2003, but no, that service began in 2000.).
If I've got any complaint, it's probably with Carell's character, who seems like one of those blank voids that someone forgot to give anything to do. But perhaps this is intentional, because he's just suffered such a tragic loss (actually, two) that maybe we're supposed to feel the void within him. Wikipedia also suggests that he's got no social filter because of a head injury from Vietnam. It's clear that the other two characters are meant to represent opposing viewpoints that could influence him, like one's a preacher and the other doesn't believe in God, one's optimistic while the other is pessimistic, and so on.
The train stops in New York on their way to New England, and of course they get out and explore the city around Penn Station a little bit - now, that's probably a valid NITPICK POINT, because even if there's like a half-hour stop in NYC, I don't think Amtrak encourages people to leave the train, explore the city and get back on. Besides, I know for a fact that those businesses on 8th Ave. between 31st and 30th St. were just not there in 2003 - namely Brother Jimmy's BBQ and Famous Amadeus pizza. OK, the Blarney Stone pub was probably there, I think it's always just been there.
Also starring Bryan Cranston (last seen in "The Disaster Artist"), Laurence Fishburne (last heard in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"), J. Quinton Johnson (last seen in "Everybody Wants Some!!"), Richard Robichaux (last seen in "Bernie"), Yul Vazquez (last seen in "Time Out of Mind"), Lee Harrington, Cicely Tyson (last seen in "The Comedians"), Kate Easton, Deanna Reed-Foster, Graham Wolfe, Ted Watts Jr.
RATING: 6 out of 10 faded photographs
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