Fort Bliss

Highly recommended, particularly if you are a military family or have a daughter, sister, or loved one in the military. The issues raised in this film related to how our women active duty service people must navigate the balance between serving the nation and serving their families are important ones, and often overlooked. A really well-made, well-acted independent feature. Michelle Monaghan is a revelation here, but I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised based on her performance in True Detective. Not a perfect movie, but way better than most. And certainly deserves a better marketing and distribution strategy than they have gotten.

Fort Bliss can't help but feel like another domestic-set military drama in an unfortunately lesser vein of 2009's fantastic The Messenger. The film's focus on PTSD and it's impact on someone's loved ones certainly does not pave new cinematic ground. Where the film does succeed is in it's subversive casting of the beautiful Michelle Monaghan in the role of a shell-shocked, yet successful medic coming back to her estranged son. It's a new point of view, that of a FEMALE soldier returning home to find her old life alienating. The film fails to bring forth any new point of view relating to the tortured duality of a soldier's life returning home with the desire to be back in the field (and vice-versa) that The Hurt Locker didn't depict so emphatically. There are some plot-lines of the film that are lackluster, others are more engaging. The story that gives the film is most potent emotional heft is the focus on Monaghan's relationship with her son. It is at times crushingly sad, while not being cloying. It is this direct **** emotionalism that gives Fort Bliss it's backbone. The performances are consistent enough, particularly Monaghan, as I stated earlier, as well as Manolo Cardona as her spanish love interest and an understated Ron Livingston in the role of her ex-husband. Dash Mihok's turn is somewhat melodramatic and his storyline proves to be the least interesting as well as the least authentic. For those who haven't yet seen other (and better) Iraq-war set household dramas will find this film inadvertently a little slight in comparison, to no fault of it's own. I am glad that more filmmakers are willing to touch on this important subject and big-name actors are willing to lend their talents to bring some attention to this often forgotten and important subject that hits closer to home than we may think.