Stop-Loss

Aroview: Sincerely handled melodrama from the director of BOYS DON'T CRY, dealing with a disillusioned Texan soldier (Phillippe) who goes AWOL after returning from Iraq, faced with the prospect of an extended tour-of-duty.

Partly based on the director's brother's experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan, though clearly indebted to Vietnam vet dramas of the late '70s, this momentarily captures some of that era's existential anomie through some sharp casting, but there's a distinct lack of overall focus and an unwillingness to firmly castigate the Bush administration for its exploitative treatment of soldiers. A well-intentioned yet patchy account of the post-Iraq fallout that doesn't match up to the quality of scathing documentaries on the subject.

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