recommended

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

I served 8 years in my state militia which is overseen by the National Guard. My father and stepfather served the military during wartime. My oldest son was deployed to Afghanistan. My wife served in the military for 27 years which meant that for the 21 years we have been together, I have been a military spouse. When she deployed to Kosovo a few years ago, I was stressed out to the max. Non-military people did not understand how I felt at all. My nine-year old son missed his mother badly. Upon my wife's return, we watch this movie and it brought tears to our eyes. It is raw, genuine and hits you between the eyes with military reality. I am very honored to have recently met Claudia Myers, the director, and I am very impressed with her passion to show military life as it actually happens. This is honest film making at its finest.

This movie stars Michelle Monaghan as Army Sergeant Maggie Swann, and her performance carries this movie. We have several young friends, male and female, in the military and this take opens your eyes to the difficulties.The first 6 minutes of the movie shows Swann in action, in Afghanistan, as a medic. There is a tense scene where a soldier has an active device embedded into his side and Swann has to cut into him, in the field and without anesthetic, to remove it, possibly risking detonation.That is her life, she is tough, she is good at it, she doesn't flinch.But when she gets back to the states, to her post at Ft Bliss near El Paso, Texas, she finds life there almost harder to deal with. Her son was 3 1/2 when she left, now he is 5. He doesn't seem to remember her, and resists, but she doesn't want to leave him with her ex-husband and his fiancée. Plus she gets put in charge of training a new group of medics to be deployed in 6 to 9 months.This movie has no easy answers, it shows how difficult military service, especially in times of war, can be on soldiers, males and female alike. Monaghan is nothing short of superb and looking every bit the part. SPOILERS: She is told that her 'temporary' training assignment was changed and she will be deployed again. Instead she swings a change, 2 years in Korea, where she can take her son with her. But literally in the last hours the sergeant she vouched for to take her place had a breakdown of sorts, she realized the mission and the safety of soldiers hinged on it, so she accepted the deployment, and in the emotional penultimate scene she has to tell her son goodbye again, not knowing if she would return to him. The final scene shows her back in Afghanistan, wearing two watches on her arm, and noting it is her son's bedtime back in Texas.

Having sat on the sidelines of various action movies and thrillers, including but not limited to Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Source Code, Mission Impossible: III and this year's True Detective, it's great to see Michelle Monaghan lead a good meaty drama. It's a premise also explored this year with Clint Eastwood's American Sniper but arguably one more interesting through a mother's eyes.Returning home from duty, medic Maggie Swann (Monaghan) finds herself replaced in her son's eyes by her (Ron Livingston in a good small role) ex-husband's new wife (Emmanuelle Chriqui). As a result of her frequent absences, he doesn't even recognize her. Taking custody back from her ex, she tries to reinstate herself as her son's mother, starting their relationship with a fresh slate. Fort Bliss captures the anxiety of the fact that we can get to a point where we can no longer catch up, no matter how close we should be.Maggie thrives in service more than motherhood. She's not a bad mother by all means, but sometimes she simply lacks the patience. Monaghan plays it stern but sensitive, holding her cards close to her chest only revealing aspects of herself when necessary. It's a very controlled and layered performance that shows what she can do when given the leading opportunity.I just wish the kid actor, Oakes Fegley, wasn't so unbearable. Sure, the kid is a brat, that's the point, but it's near intolerable. His performance is not well measured, or guided by writer/director Claudia Myers into a passable unrestrained performance like Noah Wiseman in this years The Babadook. The film hinges on the kid and as he lacks charisma the goal of bonding with him is not an enticing one.The plot glides perhaps a little too smoothly, though it is very character orientated. For instance, Maggie suggests whether her son wants a bigger room to run around in and the next minute they've moved house. The writing often lacks a sensitivity to consequence when the tone of the performances and photography suggest otherwise. It could have benefited from a lot more focus as assorted characters and flashbacks drift in and out of Maggie's life without enough development to justify their prominence.Although it needed various trimmings, the power of its main ideas remains stark. Besides the idea of losing touch with those you should be closest to, it subverts the mother and father role in this context, questioning why when men have to work it's fine yet when women have to it means they're a bad mother. It puts you in a very interesting, if justifiably confrontational perspective. The film isn't all agenda driven arguments with a few tense Hurt Locker style passages to reveal more about the why of Maggie.Combined with the great performances, it has an appropriately desert bleached and subdued shaky-cam cinematography mixed with a Gustavo Santaolalla-esque score to give it a rugged aesthetic.Fort Bliss is an often intimate and involving film, but it doesn't offer enough to be completely satisfying unless you relate to it in a very specific way. But this is the Monaghan show and it's is essential viewing for any fans of her work so far. If only she could get some kind of awards traction, it would be thoroughly deserved.7/10Read more @ The Awards Circuit (http://www.awardscircuit.com/)

After a 15 month tour in Afghanistan, decorated Army medic Maggie Swann (Michelle Monaghan) returns to a cool reception. Her ex-husband Richard (Ron Livingston) is engaged to his pregnant girlfriend Alma (Emmanuelle Chriqui). Her son Paul doesn't remember her and views Alma more of a mother figure than her. She is still struggling with traumas from the tour and regular life is hard for her.I really love Michelle Monaghan's performance as the hardened Maggie. Her relationship with her son is compelling. In fact, I prefer the movie just concentrating on that and leave out the romance. There's nothing wrong with the love story but it feels common. The mother-child story feels fresher. It takes the often-repeated story on a less traveled road.