Thirty years after serving in Vietnam former Navy Corpsman Larry 'Doc' Shepherd is reunited with his old Marine buddies Sal Nealon and Richard Mueller a now Reverend after his son was killed in the Iraq War as a young Marine. He wanted some help with burying him.
The film is very emotional on many different levels though out and that certainly makes for an interesting and consuming watch. Don't worry though as they have plenty of comedy moments in as well to lighten the load. The thing with them is that it feels very real and how people might just react being in that situation. The situation of well not being able to deal with the tragic event in a good way.
Doc very quickly manages to find his two old war pals and tells them of his tough situation and what he had been told happened to his son. We do find out though that what he was told and what really happened were not the same thing. I guess that is something which must make this extremely difficult to watch for anyone who has lost a family member or friend when they have been serving their country. Have you even been told the correct thing?
I think that also means that this film could certainly open up many different talking points and that is something which will be very hard-hitting for everyone who is involved with the decisions made to send soldiers to different countries when in reality they don't really need to be there. That is something that is made when comparing the Vietnam and Iraq wars in this film. On that side of it all I guess you can say the film is used very much as a political statement.
I thought each of the three leads were impressive and brought something very different and unique to the film. Cranston was over the top and had a very large in your face type of character which he did very well. Carell as the grieving father again showing that he really can do the more serious of roles. Fishburne as the marine turned Reverend who eventually breaks back into his former life and character. They all compliment one another in a great way as well, something I was very impressed with. With such a tough subject matter for the plot they made it more than worth while to watch truly engaging from start to finish.
I was actually really pleased to be able to catch up with this one so quickly available on Amazon Prime Video as it had a very limited Cinema release, although it is a production from Amazon Studios. So if you have Prime I really do recommend that you give this one a watch for the good performances and hard-hitting story, I am sure you will not be disappointed as let's face it Cranston can do no wrong!
