'Fort Bliss': Michelle Monaghan shines as troubled medic
The soldier returning home, war and death still rattling in his head, has long been a theme in films. The Best Years of Our Lives addressed post-traumatic stress disorder decades before the diagnosis had that name. The Deer Hunter, Born on the Fourth of July, The Hurt Locker's chilling coda: men struggling with physical and psychological injury, trying to fit into a world that seems out of sync, and wrong.
The soldier returning home, war and death still rattling in his head, has long been a theme in films. The Best Years of Our Lives addressed post-traumatic stress disorder decades before the diagnosis had that name. The Deer Hunter, Born on the Fourth of July, The Hurt Locker's chilling coda: men struggling with physical and psychological injury, trying to fit into a world that seems out of sync, and wrong.
Fort Bliss, Claudia Myers' low-budget, high-caliber drama, is one of these movies, but then again not. The Army medic back from extended deployment in Afghanistan is a woman, Staff Sgt. Maggie Swann, portrayed with a fearsome commitment, up and down her spine, by Michelle Monaghan. The homecoming scene at the El Paso, Texas, base that gives the film its name isn't one of joy. There is no welcoming ring of loved ones for Maggie to embrace. She walks through the clusters of reunited families and spouses, and finds her deadbeatish ex-husband (Ron Livingston) out in the parking lot, late, arriving without the 5-year-old son she had left behind.
Maggie is still in the Army, and her plan is to take Paul (Oakes Fegley) back from his dad and the new wife, Alma (Emmanuelle Chriqui), and for mother and son to get to know each other all over again. She's been away for a third of his life; the boy has become attached to Alma; he hardly knows this woman in her fatigues and cap, looking for a hug. In their drab apartment, they sit down to microwaved meals; the child sulks and yells. Maggie yells back. Predawn, on the way to the base where she is training new medic teams, she drops Paul at a day care - the door opening to a floor of curled-up, sleeping children.
Myers, who has made films for the military and teaches film at American University, has given Monaghan a to-die-for role.
The actress brings Maggie alive in all her complexity and contradiction: a working single mother, proud of who she is and what she does, but facing daunting challenges in balancing career and parenting, haunted by memories of what she saw, and did (or perhaps failed to do), in war. And what of Maggie's own needs, desires? A failing car battery leads her to a garage where the ridiculously handsome mechanic, Luis (Colombian actor Manolo Cardona), offers the loan of his motorcycle, and quite possibly, his affections.
Fort Bliss is a small film, but it addresses big issues, in ways that are never simplistic or dogmatic. The supporting cast is strong. Freddy Rodriguez is Maggie's base captain; Pablo Schreiber, the sergeant with whom she shared a friendship, and a fateful tour of duty in Afghanistan; The Deer Hunter veteran John Savage, Maggie's wheelchair-bound father. And Monaghan is stronger still. This is a performance that deserves to be noticed. She is crushingly good.
Fort Bliss ***1/2 (Out of four stars)
Directed by Claudia Myers. With Michelle Monaghan, Manolo Cardona, Ron Livingston, Freddy Rodriguez, Emmanuelle Chriqui. Distributed by Entertainment One Films.
Running time: 1 hour, 49 mins.
Parent's guide: No MPAA rating (violence, sex, profanity, adult themes).
Playing at: PFS at the Roxy.EndText
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