Stop Loss: Critic Reviews

Strewn story parts pile up in Stop-Loss, a painfully polite Iraq war drama pitched at the MTV generation.

In some ways, there is a grim, accidental timeliness in the release of Stop-Loss, which focuses on the ordeal of American soldiers in and out of combat.

Stop-Loss can't quite decide whether to focus on making a powerful statement on a controversial and unfamiliar military policy or on a more predictable drama about the traumatic effect of war on young people's lives.

It's a remarkably entertaining movie, thanks in part to a first-rate cast and a director who knows you can't make a point without calling everyone to attention.

[Director] Peirce wants to leave us with something heavy to ponder, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what that is.

Viewers of any age are bound to be moved by [director Peirce's] primary theme: that there is no easy cure for these damaged young veterans, whether they return to war or fight their demons at home.

Swamped by cliches, continuity problems, stock characters and very good intentions.

It's more a sweaty assemblage of dramatic high-points than a coherent, persuasive story of wounded warriors trying to make it.

Anchored by deft performances from a sturdy ensemble, Stop-Loss provides proof of Peirce's sensitivity with actors as well as her interest in stories of American folk who don't often get the close-ups they should.

The power of Stop-Loss -- and this is no dumb joke -- is that it shows its hero between Iraq and a hard place.

Boys Don't Cry director Kimberly Pearce attempts to anchor the Iraq War debate in the lives of a specific subset of soldiers and nearly pulls it off. But her promising premise runs into a rut of incompatible accents and melodramatic excess.

Stop-Loss is not a great movie, but it's forceful, effective, and alive, with the raw, mixed-up emotions produced by an endless war -- a time when the patriotism of military families is in danger of being exploited beyond endurance.

Peirce's obvious respect for the returned soldiers should prevent Stop-Loss from being dismissed as a Hollywood anti-war screed. It's more accurately described as an anti-war movie with a resolutely pro-troop message.

Though its intentions are noble, it's hampered by a stock romantic subplot, a familiar structure, and a lack of symmetry.

While it would be premature to decorate it as the Best Years of Our Lives or Coming Home of the Surge, Stop-Loss carries the emotional force and propulsive drama of the quintessential soldier's story.

The story steers away from cliches and political polemics, maintaining a tone of unflinching emotional realism.

There's a keen and ugly sense of anguish to Stop-Loss, a caged sense of powerlessness beyond political outrage that makes this film far and away the most effective effort yet at capturing the frustration of the war in Iraq.

Stop-Loss goes in too many directions at once, and most of those directions are predictable.

A wildly uneven drama, by turns sincere and synthetic.

After five years of news footage and documentaries coming from the war in Iraq, Stop-Loss is as phony as a re-enactment with finger pup pets.

Brilliantly observed and vividly shot, built on a career-making performance by Ryan Phillippe, its an Iraq War movie for Americans whove been avoiding Iraq movies, even the good ones such as In the Valley of Elah.

The movie is a gripping but very limited view of their lives.

Writer/director Kimberly Peirce has clearly done her homework. What she hasn't done, at least not here, is develop any strong point of view about the war.

Stop-Loss tries to be about so many things that it addresses none of them adequately.

Stop-Loss has painted itself into a dramatic corner, which might be the most honest expression of the filmmaker's empathy for the men and women serving in Iraq.