The hunky emotion of STOP-LOSS
Mar 31st, 2008 by dino-ray
I haven’t been to the movies in a while, so I decided to take a gander at Kimberly Peirce’s latest opus, Stop-Loss, her follow up to the masterpiece that is Boys Don’t Cry.
For those of you who don’t know the story (I don’t know why you wouldn’t), let me lay it out for you: Brandon (Ryan Phillippe) returns home from Iraq and gets “stop-lossed.” According to Wikipedia it is defined as…
In the United States military, is the involuntary extension of a service member’s enlistment contract in order to retain them beyond the normal end term of service (ETS) or the ceasing of a permanent change of station (PCS) move for a member still in military service. Federal courts have consistently found that military service members contractually agree that their term of service may be involuntarily extended.
He refuses to go back and goes AWOL with his buddy, Steve’s (Channing Tatum) gal, Michelle (Abbie Cornish) - don’t worry, it’s strictly platonic - while Steve and their other buddy Tommy(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) stay at home and cope with the post traumatic stress of war.
What I liked: I loved Peirce’s exploration of the screwy concept of stop-loss, which many people, including myself did not know about. All of the pretty boys wore emotion very well, but it’s Cornish who stole the show for me. I actually remember seeing her in a little indie flick called Somersault at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin a couple years back (read my poorly written review here). I wrote something like, “Although it had many great elements and pensive afterthoughts, I thought it would’ve been better as a short.” I had no idea what the fuck I was talking about. Cornish was a phenomenal addition to the hunky pretty boy fest.
What I didn’t like: Cornish stood out to me the most - and that was the problem. Although it is endearing to see attractive men get flooded with emotion, they didn’t quite reach that level that Cornish was at. And what was the deal with all the cowboy hats? The movie illustrated Texas as a 24/7 hoedown with target practice breaks at the ranch. I lived in Texas for years and I never saw anything like that. I must’ve been living in the wrong part of the state.
Bottom line: The movie of patriotic morality hit the mark just enough for me to enjoy it. I give it a B- for educational value, masculine emotion and Abbie Cornish.