Great idea, poor execution

Rating: 6/10 (22 November 2017)

This film seems to suffer from an identity crisis. It attempts to tackle many underrepresented topics pertaining to the effect war has on veterans and their families, but it stretched itself too thin and each plot line ended up being a weak caricature of what they were trying to accomplish. With the exception of Bryan Cranston's character, Sal, and at times J. Quinton Johnston's character, Washington, all of the characters weren't very well fleshed out and none of them saw any change from the beginning of the film to the end. The dark subject matter was sprinkled with random bits of humor that, instead of lightening the tone, just felt awkward and out of place, while the story jumped around in so many places, it was hard to tell what it was really about.
There was a flier outside my screening that gave more information about the veteran issues that were highlighted in this film, which leads me to believe that it was made with a greater purpose than just to entertain. This made me even more disappointed in the fact that the writing and cinematography were often lazy, and the overall film felt like one done by an amateur filmmaker, not by a writer/director that's been around for decades. Although there are relatable moments in this film, I'm sure even more so for people who have experienced war, as a whole it is barely a step up from an over politicized after school special.