Thank You for Your Service

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I was really enjoying this film until they showed Dog fighting as a sport. Normalisation of this horrific act is not, in my opinion, okay.

It's 2007. Adam Schumann (Miles Teller) and his squad return home from Iraq. It's been a difficult tour and each one faces his own demons. Adam's wife Saskia (Haley Bennett) is desperate to help him but he's unwilling to open up to her. Upon arriving, he's accosted by Amanda Doster, the wife of his dead comrade. First, thank you for your service. There is always a problem when the movie starts with "Inspired by". It couldn't even be "Based on". For a fake story, it needs to be more concentrated. It rambles around with too many characters. Miles Teller does some good work as well as the other actors. The PTSD stories are individually compelling but the plot is lacking. The telling is flat as the audience waits for the inevitable reveal at the end. I would be more drawn in if the movie stays with Teller and Bennett. I find compelling moments but the overall viewing experience is less than thrilling.

Brotherhoods start out of necessity and bloom into linked cadavers. Three men return to slanted homes. Adam is astonished by the mere existence of his youngest child. Solo is greeted by his wife's grappling hooks of procreation. And Billy sleeps on the floor of his gutted home, void of a fiancé. Hell has not remained on that distant continent like their calendars promised. The horrors of sand drenched casualties have hitchhiked on their neural railroads. Ghosts creep over lingerie laced shoulders, and lovers' spit transforms into a nightmare's bloody rain. Adam was the human bloodhound responsible for sniffing out explosives. His success rate was alarming, but the one percent failure accounted for all the trauma he needed to spiral into self- loathing. Now in his pickup truck, he cannot locate any dangers. They are all internal, and basic training never equipped him to fight these enemies. He leads his comrades even after their deployment when it becomes evident that unseen scars need treatment. Clogged VA waiting rooms pull like quicksand, and Adam reverts to unconventional line skipping. The civilian workers hiding behind glass can never weigh the significance of their work, because wars are ran by those in mahogany and leather cocoons. Gratitude is rather expensive when the service is death. Solo claims that the military saved his life, but it only postponed his addiction and strengthened it in the process. Adam's tough facade breaks down quicker than his stoicism can paint over. Intake surveys elegantly tell the real stories of combat on a 1 to 5 spectrum.

'THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE': Four Stars (Out of Five) A war biopic about U.S. soldiers returning home from service in Iraq, and trying to adapt to normal civilian life again. It was written and directed by actor turned first time filmmaker Jason Hall, and it's based on the non-fiction novel (of the same name) by David Finkel. The movie stars Miles Teller, Beulah Koale, Haley Bennett, Joe Cole, Scott Haze and Amy Schumer. It's received mostly positive reviews from critics, and it's also performed very modestly at the Box Office as well. I found it to be a pretty well made war drama, that effectively deals with the subject of PTSD. The film begins with Sergeant Adam Schumann (Teller), Tausolo Aieti (Koale) and Will Waller (Cole) all returning home from Iraq. Schumann returns with severe depression, to his loving and supportive wife Saskia (Bennett), and their daughter. Waller also returns with severe mental issues, to find that his fiancée has left him with their daughter. Aieti returns to a pregnant wife, grateful to the military for what they've given him. We later learn that all three soldiers suffer from more horrendous PTSD issues than are even first apparent, and they quickly become life threatening for them to have to deal with. The film is pretty dark and depressing, and it's also very hard to watch (at times) because of it. There's definitely very little humor in it, or even exciting war action scenes (if that's what you're looking for). I think this is a good thing though, because it allows the movie to focus solely on PTSD, and how it deeply changes our heroic soldiers. Teller is great in the lead (like always), and Koale (who I've never heard of before this) gives a more than decent supporting turn. Like I said, it's definitely not a fun time at the movies, by any measure, but it's also definitely worth checking out.

I hate to say one scene makes a movie but the dogfighting crap was completely uncalled for if your a dog lover you will hate this.

This was a very difficult movie to watch. Rather than a war movie, it's an after-the-war movie with the returning soldiers all struggling to cope with different degrees of physical and mental disability. Betrayed by loved ones they left at home, struggling with brain injuries due to road-side bomb attacks, plagued with survivor guilt and all of them let down by the Army and Veterans Administration that's supposed to be helping them. The movie it is most like is the outstanding "The Best Years of Our Lives" which was a multi-Oscar winner in its day, following how three war veterans try, with varying degrees of success, to reclaim their civilian lives. "Thank You for Your Service" is a much more brutal version of that story in terms of language and emotional angst of the survivors. Both are well worth watching.

Thank You For Your Service is one of those perfectly formidable films about PTSD, but it's also nothing I haven't seen in other films. So while it's undeniably well-made and well-acted, it's tough overly praise something that I have ultimately seen before. The film follows 3 soldiers, just returning home from Iraq, as they struggle emotionally to re-introduce themselves to the family they haven't seen in months, or even years. Starring Miles Teller, Joe Cole, and Beulah Koale as close friends/soldiers who are looking for a way to cope with PTSD as the events in Irag haunt them through their day-to-day life. Much like most war films, there are some haunting images and scenes that are shown throughout 'Thank You For Your Service', and actually the film plays better as a heads-up to be aware of the troubles that Veterans go through after war. So I guess in that way, this story may have been better served as a documentary feature. In narrative form, there are some great performances and visually stunning scenes, however it's mostly a slow building and grueling experience emotionally and physically for these characters. Speaking of performances, there is one particular actress who just feels completely out of place in this film. It's not necessarily fair for me to call her out of place, because she actually gives a fine performance, but I'm just not used to her playing someone who should be taken seriously. That actress is Amy Schumer. Again, it's not a bad performance but I just found myself wondering how those scenes would have played out with a different actress. Thank You For Your Service is a good example of a film which I'm glad was made, but it's not an absolutely necessary film to watch. It's a nice reminder though to think about all of the Veterans of war who are constantly looking for help post-war time. In that regard, it's a well-strung together film. 7.0/10