Many U.S. soldiers return home from long overseas tours only to discover that their long-awaited homecoming is far from what they expected.
The journey is no different for three Army soldiers depicted in the movie "The Lucky Ones" when they unite in an unplanned road trip across the country on their final mission - to go home. The characters, T.K. Poole (Michael Peña), Colee Dunn (Rachel McAdams) and Fred Cheever (Tim Robbins) could be someone's father, mother, brother, sister or friend. But on this trip, these strangers discover that all that they've got left may be one another.
After arriving in New York from Germany to find their connecting flights home cancelled, they share a rental van to St. Louis where Cheever plans to reunite with his family. From there, the others will fly to their destinations.
The film plays on the comedic nature of their differences as they bond during this detour. They encounter people curiously thanking them, who understand little about what they fight for as they return home to marriages, relationships and the unknown search for a place to finally call home.
At one point, they are asked, "What are you fighting for?" Cheever responds, "We're just trying to stay alive."
Some provocative choices were made in casting. Burger scored with casting Robbins, an actor known for being outspoken regarding his opposition to the war. Each character is a representation of America with Colee as the heart, Fred the forgotten one, and T.K. the lone fighter. The war itself is a ghost character that hovers over them. What binds them together is their desire to rejoin a world that has gone on without them.
Director Neil Burger, who co-wrote the film with Dirk Wittenborn, has said he is weary of the divisive debates surrounding the war.
"The movie started out as a love letter to America and turned out to be a love letter to these characters," Burger said.
He said that his goal was to capture a country during war today as "The Last Detail" did in the '70s.
To accomplish this, he enlisted support from actual military personnel for training. McAdams trained at Fort Campbell, Tenn., for two weeks to get into the mindset of today's modern soldier.
"She can really take a punch," Burger said with a grin.
He goes on to describe how Robbins would sit and listen to veterans and families of deployed soldiers after a long day of shooting, and noted that "Tim is a patriotic American; he's got a lot of heart."
"The Lucky Ones" may just have come at the right time, arriving in the heat of this presidential election's political debates. "It's an interesting time we're in, throwing our own voice into the mix, and this film takes a clear look at a country founded on individualism," Burger said.
This film differs from a recent handful of movies portraying war, most of which have been box-office busts despite starring well-known actors. This one is lighter in mood at the surface, leaving the darker layers beneath. Through laughter, it reaches deep into emotions that move an audience to feel for these characters who can do little to help the situation they're in. "Humor," Burger said, "has the ability to heal the human spirit."
"The Lucky Ones" will open The San Diego Film Festival tonight and arrives in theaters everywhere this coming Friday.
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