MPAA Rating: R/ Genre: War Drama/ Stars: Miles Teller, Hayley Bennett, Beulah Koale, Amy Schumer, Joe Cole, Brad Beyer, Scott Haze/ Runtime: 108 minutes
It is safe to say that due to the inherent emotion and drama that comes with it, war will always be a subject of film from now until the end of time. Indeed this may be because war, as bad as it may sound, truly is a fascinating subject both from an historical and psychological perspective, and as such many different filmmakers have literally pushed themselves to at least once in their careers execute their own vision of what exactly a war movie should entail. Of course to be fair as far as originality goes the sheer amount of these films also creates a particular in-genre problem which involves stories slowly, but surely beginning to feel well-worn, regardless of how important each film may be on an individual level. Indeed, although this is a hurdle that is definitely faced by the film Thank You for Your Service, and while it really truly is a drawback, this film still manages to work thanks to compelling performances, a pretty dang good story, and also a truly significant message about not only how we treat our heroes, but what happens when our heroes come home only to find themselves engaged in a battle for their mind and soul to return home with them.
The plot is as follows: the film concerns a group of combat veterans and their partners, all of whom we quickly learn are also connected to a series of traumatic and painful events that took place on the battlefield that I promise are revealed in due time. Our characters include: Sgt. Adam Schumann (Miles Teller), a genuine rock of decency who finds his willingness to shoulder other peoples’ burdens and/or issues starting to feel more like a form of emotional retreat, Tausolo Aieti (Beulah Koale), an American Samoan who, despite brain damage, still credits the military with being one of the best things in his life, Will Waller (Joe Cole), a young man who returns home hoping to settle down at long last only to find that his fiancée has left him and taken their daughter with her, and James Doster (Brad Beyer), who, despite having died in Iraq and being portrayed only in flashbacks and through other people’s anecdotes, is absolutely an important and integral part of the plot. We also get to experience these events, Best Years of Our Lives-style, through the eyes of some of our ragtag group of soldiers’ significant others including Saskia Schumann (Hayley Bennett) a fiery at times young woman who is as loyal and supportive to her husband as he is to his former platoon-mates, and Doster’s wife Amanda (Amy Schumer, in a rare and surprisingly effective dramatic turn), who attempts to stay connected to the few friends she has while all the while struggling to find out exactly what happened to her husband overseas. Together this group of characters will discover that while the body physically leaving the battlefield is easy, it’s sadly not that simple for the mind or the heart….
Now every soldier, save for Dorster, I feel it is no spoiler to tell you is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of one kind or another. Indeed I feel it is also no spoiler to tell you that while sometimes the PTSD manifests itself during this film’s runtime in terms of sleeplessness, nightmares and sudden outbursts of resentment or violence there are other times where it either takes on a physical aspect — especially for Tausolo, who survived a bomb blast from an Improvised Explosive Device and now suffers memory dropouts that resemble early onset Alzheimer’s’ disease to simply a repressed condition broiling just underneath surface as we see with Adam who, despite presenting himself as an avatar of true even-temperedness, is nothing more than a smiling storm of mixed emotions and, for the most part, unexpressed anxiety. Despite that the characters’ PTSD is, thankfully, not expressed in a clichéd way.
Also while there is a bit of combat action at the beginning and end of the movie, and snippets of Iraq flashback strewn throughout, as well as a couple of moments where characters seem as if they’re about to become involved in violent crime these are, thankfully, uncharacteristic interludes that total maybe five percent of the movie’s running time, and are mainly used as nothing more than sources of information about the characters with particular respect to what they’ve been through, what they’re capable of, and what their limits truly are. Indeed this film is truly a far cry from “American Sniper,” because whereas that film alternated between brain-splattering urban shootouts and low-key moments of domestic strife what’s most important in this film at any given moment isn’t what’s happening at the level of plot. Instead it’s how the characters feel about whatever they’re going through, and also how the trauma they’ve experienced affects not only their perceptions of the world around them, but their perceptions of each other as well.
Now since much of this movie simply shows the characters talking to each other about the war, life after the war, their families, and their obligations and hopes for the future the film’s script is terrific in how it is filled with jocular, often casually profane dialogue that perfectly captures the way real men and women more often than not speak to each other during private moments. Yet while there are scenes that feel too loose or fragmented for their own good, and moments early on when the lead performances seem too casual as the film unfolds before you will find yourself really starting to appreciate not only the actors’ and their pretense of naturalism, but also the director’s refusal to frame any shots in conventionally polished way to the point that when this film is at its best it may truly evoke for some fond memories of such films as “The Best Years of Our Lives,” “The Deer Hunter,” and “Born on the Fourth of July.”
Now I feel that the cast is all in top-form here starting with particular strong work from Miles Teller. Indeed in the last seven years, Teller has done a fantastic job of building up a reputation as one of the strongest young actors currently working in the industry, and, while I feel it started with The Spectacular Now and his strong work in 2014’s Whiplash, I feel his recent run starring in true life inspired stories, aka Bleed For This, War Dogs, and Only the Brave, has only managed to further cement that status even further. Indeed for the role for Adam Schumann in Thank You for Your Service, Teller does a fantastic job of not only effectively disappearing into the part, but also manages to elegantly sell the very real torment that is behind Adam’s eyes at seemingly every moment. However the breakout star I feel that is on display here is Koale, a New Zealand-born actor of Samoan descent who, much to my shock, has never had a lead role in a major film before this one. Indeed his disarmingly understated performance is so bereft of the usual actor shtick that there are times while the film is focusing on him when the dramatic architecture this film possesses seems to simply vanish, and leave you feeling as if you’re watching an absolutely remarkable fly-on-the-wall documentary about a young man who just got back from war to the point that he is just extraordinary to watch through and through and I hope that this is the start of a long and glorious career for him.
Now the most heartbreaking scenes in the film I feel show Adam, Tausolo and their colleagues running a literal gauntlet of bureaucracy in their efforts to get treatment for their various mental or physical problems yet there are no “bad guys” in any of these scenes, nor are there no snide or hateful rotten apples being the poster children for larger, faceless institutions. There are just simply people who work for the Veterans Administration who, while well aware of how little power they have to improve veterans’ lives, genuinely seem to be apologetic and frustrated that they can’t do more and nothing else. So that when you as an audience member see these scenes where Adam, Tausolo, and others having a drink or sitting in some of extremely crowded waiting rooms outside government offices waiting for their numbers to be called, the film keeps cutting to shots of veterans whose bodies have been devastated by combat including a man with a prosthetic leg, and a man emptying a catheter bag among other gut punches so that when the movie is done you realize that the tone of these scenes is not cynical, but merely exhausted, and yet this makes things even more devastating because it hits you that if it’s not just one person or entity that is at fault for all of this then it means that, in some small way, we all are, and that is perhaps the most gut-wrenching realization of all….
All in all in the long legacy of war movies, Thank You for Your Service isn’t at times exactly what you may consider a standout. Yet at the end of the day this film not only has its place, but it also has a significant story to tell. Indeed when you combine that with truly potent imagery and some truly fantastic performances what you find yourself left with is a film that shines a truly bright light not only on the importance of supporting our veterans, but also on the truly horrifying lack of options available to a group that many consider our nation’s undoubtedly greatest heroes. On a scale of 1–5 I give Thank You for Your Service a 3.5 out of 5.
