Fascinating character study

Rating: 7/10 (18 June 2015)

The lion's share of "American Sniper" is spent overseas and on the battlefield, but it's not that war movie that really interested me. It's the scenes when Kyle is back home that the movie bears some real weight. This character is so hard-wired and mentally with his brothers-in-arms that he can't explain to those back at home why he has to keep going back to Iraq. But it's also heartbreaking to see the destructive effects on his family life. Chris and his wife started out s something exciting, but the relationship suffers when he's back home; the anxiety increases simply when they're having a marital chat.
It might be that, between "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty", I've just gotten bored with battle scenes in that region. The shootouts and ambushes weren't doing it for me (well-staged though they were). Not sure. But when the movie becomes (almost) anti-war is where the real tension happens. And give Bradley Cooper some real credit here; he really seems to inhabit that Texas drawl, rather than just affecting an accent. That, and the bulked physique, he's throwing himself into this role.
7/10