The Lucky Ones

The Lucky Ones (2008) ***1/2

Here's a fact: movies about the current war in Iraq have done about as well as... well, the current war in Iraq. To be fair, none of them have really been great. Even Tommy Lee Jones' In the Valley of Elah did not manage well financially, though it did manage to get half decent reception from critics. Understandably most of the films have been pretty heavy handed, and just as understandably, audiences have been satiating those taste buds with other, less controversial and subjects. But then comes along The Lucky Ones, starring Tim Robbins, Michael Pena, and Rachael McAdams. The film is about 3 soldiers returning home from Iraq; two on leave for 30 days, the other out for good. Instead of sticking to the usual downbeat tones of other Iraq films, it's more of a hopeful charmer and quite a funny one too. It's really more of a good old fashioned American road movie with soldiers than a war movie. But that didn't stop people from not going. The film got only limited release through 2008, despite gaining fans on the festival circuit.

Three soldiers return home from Iraq after meeting each other on the plane ride. When they arrive on American soil to catch their connecting flights, they discover that the airport is backed up solid due to a black out. Rather than wait around, Cheaver (Robbins) decides he's close enough to his home in St. Louis to rent a car and drive. TK and Colee (Pena and McAdams) decide they should join him. They're both heading to Las Vegas and figure they can probably make the drive and catch a flight out of St. Louis by the time they would here.

Colee is heading to Vegas to return her boyfriend's vintage guitar to his family. He died in the war. TK is heading to Vegas for some professional help before he meets up with his fiancé. Hookers and strippers? Colee inquires. Kind of - but not for the usual reasons. You see, they all have wounds, but some more sensitive than others. Cheaver injured his back in a not so heroic way, but he's more amused and relieved about it than embarrassed. Colee's been shot in the leg, and sports an unhealed wound and a limp. TK gets the best of both their worlds: he's been wounded by shrapnel in a not so public area. Now, as he says, it doesn't work right. He's going to Vegas to meet with some "professionals" to test his own little soldier out. "I can't go back to my fiancé without knowing it works, we'd have nothing to talk about!" A strange predicament for two people about to be married.

Cheaver, being the oldest in his 40s, is usually something of a father figure to the younger TK and Colee. On their trip those two first bicker before becoming closer. Colee openly talks about her late ex, and tells the tales he told her of robbing a Casino in Vegas to pay off his loan shark debts. TK responds with coldness and ridicules the dead man for his character. It results, inevitably in having to pull over and the keys inevitably being locked in the car.

The Lucky One's certainly doesn't go anywhere we really don't expect it to, but the paths it takes to get there aren't necessarily always the one's we expect. For example, given how quickly the trio arrive in St. Louis, it's obvious something will have to happen to keep it going. It's no big surprise to reveal that his wife wants a divorce, though she apparently is not cheating on him. Meanwhile their son breaks the big news that he got into Stanford, but needs 20 grand to secure his spot. So Cheaver decides he'll go to visit his brother or maybe even go to Vegas and win the money. That guitar Colee carries around is actually even worth 20 grand, though he doesn't want it, and she has to give it to her dead boyfriends family. She wants to give it to him but obviously knows she can't, although what she knows about her dead boyfriend seems to be less and less as time goes on.

The movie is populated with the usual oddball characters and chance encounters you find on cross country road trips, or in cross country road trip movies. There's a stop over at a church where they meet a very wealthy parishioner who invites them to a party, where among other things they encounter a young man against the war, another man who thinks after meeting the trio there's a good reason why they're losing the war, and a horny wife with the hots for the old Cheaver. Elsewhere they encounter the usual road side bars and motels, traveling sex workers and a rogue Tornado. And of course, along the way each confronts their own issues and demons.

The Lucky Ones is a funny and winning little movie. It's above all else a very human movie. The characters are what makes it succeed, not it's story. All three leads give wonderful and sincere performances, particularly McAdams as Colee. She's naive but not unintelligent, and tough but still vulnerable.

What could have been a downer filled with cheap shots and cheap tactics is instead smart and even handed, and above all respectful. That's not to say that it's necessarily a "safe" movie - but then again a movie that's best described as a road comedy about Iraq Veterans probably cannot be. It's above all else a very human movie. The characters are what makes it succeed, not it's story. All three leads give wonderful and sincere performances, particularly McAdams as Colee. She's naive but not unintelligent, and tough but still vulnerable. The movie ends as the soldiers' leave expires and they must return. At least for now they've been the lucky ones. Here's to hoping they stayed lucky.

Did you have any idea that The Best Years of Our Lives was remade in 2007? I didn't either until I was actually watching the movie and figuring out the similarities. The Lucky Ones is a very good film, but unfortunately, hardly anyone has even heard of it. Don't expect a literal remake, though. This one won't make you cry, and it won't change your life, but it is a modern tribute.

Instead of three veterans returning from WWII, the three leads are coming home from Iraq. Tim Robbins is the Frederic March equivalent, an older family man who has to adjust to his relationship with his wife and college-aged child. Michael Pena is the injured party, but instead of missing hands, he has damaged another part of his anatomy that makes him feel like less of a man. And instead of Dana Andrews, there's Rachel McAdams, who's looking for her boyfriend's family (instead of Dana looking for his wife). Just like in the original, they start off with mixed feelings about coming back, and after their homecomings don't go well, they meet up again and help each other through their struggles. It does deviate quite a bit from The Best Years of Our Lives, though, so don't hold it against me that I called it a remake. It's as close to a remake as we're going to get, since the modern time has changed quite a bit from the 1940s. I really like it though, and I own a DVD copy.

I'd never heard of Neil Burger's "The Lucky Ones" until a friend recommended it to me after catching it on a flight to Australia. Released in theatres stateside last year, it was pulled after making a paltry $267,000 in its opening week. This is a hell of a shame as what we have here is the first great movie about the Iraq war. Three soldiers return to the states on leave and through circumstances end up on a road trip to Vegas. Michael Pena is a cocky Sargeant with a wound in his manhood, struggling to come to terms with how his Fiancé will react to his impotence. Tim Robbins is a veteran trying to find the money to send his kid to college and thus stop him enlisting. But the standout performance, and quite possibly the standout performance of the past year full stop, comes from Rachel McAdams as a naive private returning her dead boyfriends guitar to his family. Her turn here is far superior to anything Oscar nominated this year and probably the best from an American actress since Hilary Swank in Million Dollar Baby. The films strongest point is its lack of a "message". Pro war or Anti war, you'll find your own point of view here and Burger is subtle enough to allow you the privilege. I won't give it away but this has a great ambiguous seventies style ending, just the way I like 'em. It's always a good sign when a movie ends and you wish you could get to see more of the characters, and it's an all too rare occurrence in modern cinema. For this Burger and his cast should be applauded.

Three soldiers who have received non life threatening wounds in Iraq are together on a plane to New York. Two of them are on thirty day leaves while the other has served his time and is on his way home. Due to a power outage, all flights out of New York have been canceled. The three agree to rent a car together in order to continue the trip to their destinations. Thus begins a road trip that is highly dramatic with its share of comic events.

Fred Cheaver is the middle aged father figure of the three - a man who never really expected to do anything in the army except serve his domestic reserve duty. He is glad to be rid of the whole thing and is headed home to his wife and son. The two young soldiers who accompany Fred are Colee Dunn and T.K. Poole. Colee is a bright-eyed innocent who is on a mission for a fallen comrade who saved her life. T.K. is a no nonsense soldier from a family of soldiers who plans to make the army his career and move up the chain of command.

Whereas, Fred's quest is to return home to wife and son, Colee's and T.K.'s goals are to travel to Las Vegas for two entirely different reasons. Colee wants to return her dead comrade's treasured guitar to his family. T.K.'s reason is somewhat mysterious, but we know it is related in some way to his injury that has left him temporarily impotent.

As with all road trip films, the experiences and interactions of these three lead to conclusions not expected by them or the viewers.

Unlike most films featuring vets returning from the horrors of war, this film is not filled with dark angst - not to say the characters are not well-fleshed and genuine. These three are real people with real problems, but their depictions are not heavy-handed.

During this film, the viewer gets to enjoy the work of three excellent actors. Tim Robbins gives his usual fine, understated performance as the older man facing some totally unexpected twists of fate. Rachel McAdams gives Colee a likable innocence but also reveals some darker layers of her character. Michael Peña is very, very good as the macho guy with a heart who only wants to be a good soldier. Watching these three interact is a real treat.

Some may consider the treatment of the subject matter of this film too light handed, but it has a gentleness that rings true. It is surely worth watching.

The Lucky ones concerns three Iraq War soldiers who have just returned to the States: Fred Cheever (Tim Robbins) is out for good, and can't wait to reunite with his wife and son in St. Louis; T.K. Poole (Michael Pena) has suffered an embarrassing injury and is on his way to reconnecting with his fiancée before heading back overseas; and the also-injured Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams) is on a mission to deliver a precious guitar to her deceased boyfriend's parents in Las Vegas. These strangers are brought together when JFK Airport is shut down indefinitely. Deciding that renting a car is a better option than twiddling their thumbs and waiting for the planes to fly, they hit the road on an eventful journey that will bring them closer together than they ever would have expected... The Lucky Ones is a film that doesn't really make any statements about the war. Instead it's a character study of these 3 soldiers and it shows how the return from war can be weird and bizarre. The film handles some very dramatic subjects but, always in a light way. As in every road trip film, the character's journey is full of chance encounters and misadventures, and each one of the soldiers ends up fighting some of their own demons or coming to certain realizations. Granted, some of the events feel a bit contrived, but this is a dramedy, not a realistic war drama. The film was very well acted starting with Michael Pena, who despite doing mostly small roles, was a pleasant surprise as a central character. The veteran Tim Robbins delivered a good, even if subtle, performance as the older soldier who's life becomes upside down. However the film belongs to the gorgeous Rachel McAdams; she was feisty, charismatic and overall, just great, as she usually is. One cannot help but to fall a little bit in love with her every time she does a film. At the end of the day, The Lucky Ones is a quirky little film with a certain gentleness that works mainly, because it focuses on the characters and their emotions and not on the war and it's motives. Definitely a nice watch.

7/10