Fantastic!

A Disappointing Continuation

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Great performances from the whole cast but especially Monaghan. Also, good to see John Savage again - in a small role as Maggie's father. Movie deals more than just with the situation facing returning vets, also with the complexities of modern families.

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.

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.